BX  5139  .H623 

Hodges,  George,  1856-1919. 
The  Episcopal  church 


Digitized  by 

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THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  •  BOSTON  ■  CHICAGO  •  DALLAS 
ATLANTA  .  SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  ■  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 


ITS  FAITH  AND  ORDER 


BY 

GEORGE  "HODGES 

DEAN  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  THEOLOGICAL  SCHOOL 
CAMBRIDGE,  MASSACHUSETTS 


N*m  lark 

THE  MACMHXAN  COMPANY 
1915 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1915 
By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  February,  1915. 


PREFACE 


These  ten  lectures  are  offered  to  the 
younger  clergy  as  a  suggestion  in  their 
preparation  of  persons  for  confirmation. 
An  outline  is  prefixed  to  each  chapter  as 
a  statement  and  sequence  of  the  topics 
which  they  will  expound  in  their  own  way. 
At  the  end  of  the  series  of  instructions  the 
book  may  be  given  to  those  who  are  con- 
firmed, as  a  reminder  of  what  they  have 
been  taught. 

The  necessary  brevity  of  titles  gives  to 
the  book  an  apparent  claim  to  authority 
which  is  in  no  wise  intended.  Nobody  may 
speak  for  the  Episcopal  Church.  One  of  its 
characteristics  is  its  hospitable  inclusion 
of  very  different  people.  Whoever  uses  this 
book  aright  will  bring  to  it  his  own  person- 
ality and  experience,  and  the  actual  needs 
of  his  own  congregation,  and  will  differ 
from  it,  here  in  interpretation,  and  there  in 
emphasis.  At  the  same  time,  these  pages 
have  not  been  written — at  least,  in  inten- 
tion— from  the  point  of  view  of  any  particu- 

v 


PREFACE 


lar  kind  of  churchmanship.  The  constant 
purpose  has  been  to  set  forth,  without 
partisanship  and  without  prejudice,  "a 
declaration  of  those  things  which  are  most 
surely  believed  among  us." 

The  annual  visitation  of  the  bishop  gives 
the  pastor  an  opportunity  for  systematic 
instruction.  In  the  teaching  of  his  cat- 
echumens he  will  deal  with  many  matters 
which  are  not  essential  to  their  confirma- 
tion, but  for  which  this  is  a  convenient 
season.  He  will  present  in  rapid  survey  a 
field  of  truth  whose  details  he  is  continually 
considering  at  length  in  his  sermons.  He 
will  teach  "the  Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
and  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  all 
other  things  which  a  Christian  ought  to 
know  and  believe  to  his  soul's  health." 
These  are  the  subjects  which  are  considered 
in  this  book. 

In  the  presentation  of  these  matters  I 
have  had  the  benefit  of  the  counsel  and 
criticism  of  my  friend  and  colleague,  Pro- 
fessor Edward  S.  Drown. 

George  Hodges. 
Cambridge,  Massachusetts. 


vi 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


I. 

The  Bible  . 

3 

II. 

The  Prayer  Book 

21 

III. 

Baptism 

•  41 

IV. 

Confirmation 

•  59 

V. 

Renunciation 

•  77 

VI. 

Obedience  . 

•  95 

VII. 

The  Creed  .... 

•  117 

VIII. 

The  Church  .... 

.  141 

IX. 

Prayer  . 

.  165 

X. 

The  Holy  Communion. 

.  183 

THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 


THE  BIBLE 


THE  BIBLE 

I.  The  Contents  of  the  Bible 

1.  The  Old  Testament 

(1)  History:  two  series 

(2)  Poetry:  five  books 

(3)  Prophecy:  major  and  minor 

Eighth  century — Assyrians 
Seventh  century — Chaldeans 
Sixth  century — exile  and  re- 
turn 
Later  writings 

2.  The  New  Testament 

(1)  Historical  books 

(2)  Twenty-one  letters:  Pauline  and 

Catholic 

(3)  The  Revelation 
II.   The  Nature  of  the  Bible 

1.  A  book  of  inspiration 

Inspiration  and  genius 

2.  A  book  of  revelation 

Revelation  and  discovery 


3 


I 


THE  BIBLE 

The  Episcopal  Church  stands  on  the 
foundation  of  the  Bible.  Two  chapters  of 
the  Bible  (or  parts  of  chapters)  are  read 
at  every  service  of  Morning  or  Evening 
Prayer,  four  or  five  psalms  are  said  or  sung, 
and  the  Communion  Service  adds  a  selec- 
tion from  one  of  the  Gospels  and  another 
from  one  of  the  Epistles.  The  calendars 
of  lessons  at  the  beginning  of  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  provide  for  the  reading  of 
nearly  all  of  the  Bible  in  course  during  the 
year. 

In  the  services  for  the  ordination  of 
ministers  special  emphasis  is  put  upon  the 
supreme  importance  of  the  Bible.  "Are 
you  persuaded  that  the  Holy  Scriptures 
contain  all  Doctrine  required  as  necessary 
to  eternal  salvation  through  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ?  And  are  you  determined,  out  of 
the  said  Scriptures  to  instruct  the  people 
committed  to  your  charge,  and  to  teach 

4 


THE  BIBLE 


nothing  as  necessary  to  eternal  salvation, 
but  that  which  you  shall  be  persuaded  may 
be  concluded  and  proved  by  the  Scrip- 
ture?" 

I 

The  Bible  is  a  library  of  sixty-six  books, 
bound  together  for  convenience.  These 
books  were  written  during  the  space  of 
about  a  thousand  years.  It  is  as  if  we  were 
to  bring  together  between  two  covers  sixty- 
six  writings,  of  which  the  earliest  was  com- 
posed in  the  reign  of  King  Alfred  and  the 
latest  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria.  All 
of  the  thirty-nine  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment were  written  in  Asia:  some  in  Pales- 
tine, some  in  Babylonia.  Some  of  the  New 
Testament  books  were  written  in  Asia 
Minor,  some  in  Greece,  some  in  Italy. 

The  general  theme  of  almost  all  of  these 
books  is  Religion.  The  book  of  Esther 
does  not  contain  the  name  of  God,  and  the 
book  called  the  Song  of  Solomon  is  a  collec- 
tion of  love  poems;  but  these  are  excep- 
tions. The  Bible  is  concerned  with  the 
dealings  of  God  with  man.  God  has  always 
dealt  with  all  men,  and  there  are  other 
records  which  contain  the  experience  of 

5 


THE  BIBLE 


China,  of  India,  of  Egypt,  of  Assyria.  The 
Old  Testament  is  an  account  of  the  rela- 
tion of  God  to  the  Hebrews;  the  New 
Testament  is  an  account  of  the  relation  of 
God  to  the  Christians — Hebrew,  Greek  and 
Latin — and,  through  them,  to  the  whole 
human  race. 

i.  The  Old  Testament  is  in  three  parts, 
conveniently  called  history,  poetry  and 
prophecy. 

Old  Testament  history  is  contained  in  the 
seventeen  books  from  Genesis  to  Esther. 
These  books  are  in  two  series.  The  first 
series,  from  Genesis  to  Second  Kings,  in- 
clusive, begins  with  the  creation  of  the 
world  and  extends  to  the  fall  of  Jerusalem 
in  586  B.  C.  It  is  a  history  of  the  people. 
The  second  series,  from  First  Chronicles 
to  Esther,  begins  over  again  with  Adam 
and  comes  down  to  the  restoration  of  the 
Jews  to  their  own  land,  after  the  exile 
which  followed  the  fall  of  Jerusalem;  it 
includes  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple  in 
516,  and  the  rebuilding  of  the  city  walls  in 
445.  It  is  a  history  not  so  much  of  the 
people  as  of  the  Church.  Thus,  after  the 
division  of  the  kingdom,  the  history  follows 
the  fortunes  and  misfortunes  of  the  south- 
6 


THE  BIBLE 


era  tribes,  centered  about  the  temple  in 
Jerusalem,  and  has  little  to  say  about  the 
northern  tribes  who  had  their  separate 
sanctuaries.  No  record  is  made  even  of 
such  notable  persons  as  Elijah  and  Elisha; 
they  are  regarded  as  dissenting  ministers. 

The  poetry  of  the  Old  Testament  is 
mostly  contained  in  the  five  books  which 
are  placed  after  Esther.  One  of  these,  the 
Psalms,  is  a  hymn  book;  another,  the  Song 
of  Solomon,  is  a  song  book.  The  other 
three  are  called  Wisdom  Books.  The 
Proverbs  is  a  collection  of  the  words  of 
wise  men  regarding  the  conduct  of  life; 
Job  shows  the  wise  man  in  the  trials  of 
adversity;  Ecclesiastes  shows  the  wise  man 
in  the  trials  of  prosperity. 

Prophecy,  in  the  Bible,  signifies  preach- 
ing rather  than  prediction.  The  prophet 
sometimes  speaks  before  the  event,  de- 
claring what  will  happen  in  consequence 
of  the  behavior  and  disposition  of  the 
people;  but  he  always  speaks  for  God,  as 
the  messenger  of  God,  setting  forth  the 
will  of  God.  There  are  four  long  books 
of  prophecy,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel, 
Daniel.  These  are  called,  on  account  of 
their  length,  the  Major  Prophets.   In  the 

7 


THE  BIBLE 


midst  of  this  group  is  the  book  of  Lam- 
entations. There  are  twelve  short  books, 
called  for  a  like  reason,  the  Minor  Prophets. 
Of  these  minor  prophets,  Amos,  Hosea 
and  Micah  preached  in  the  eighth  century, 
when  the  land  was  invaded  by  the  As- 
syrians, and  the  northern  kingdom  was 
destroyed;  Zephaniah,  Nahum  and  Hab- 
akkuk  preached  in  the  seventh  century, 
when  the  land  was  invaded  by  the  Chal- 
deans, and  the  southern  kingdom  was  about 
to  be  destroyed;  Obadiah,  Haggai,  Zech- 
ariah  and  Malachi  preached  in  the  sixth 
century,  when  the  Jews  returned  from 
their  captivity;  Joel  and  Jonah  came  later, 
Joel  taking  his  text  from  a  plague  of 
locusts,  and  Jonah  dealing  with  the  nar- 
rowness into  which  the  people  had  been 
led  by  their  hatred  of  their  foreign  con- 
querors. The  four  Major  Prophets  belong 
to  these  four  groups  in  order:  Isaiah,  the 
prophet  of  the  Assyrian  invasion;  Jeremiah, 
the  prophet  of  the  Chaldean  invasion  and 
the  fall  of  Jerusalem;  Ezekiel,  the  prophet 
of  the  exile  and  of  the  return;  Daniel,  the 
prophet  of  the  Greek  oppression,  after  the 
conquest  of  Palestine  by  Alexander  the 
Great. 

8 


THE  BIBLE 


2.  The  New  Testament,  like  the  Old,  is 
in  three  parts,  history,  letters,  and  "rev- 
elation." 

The  historical  books  are  the  Gospels  and 
the  Acts.  Mark  was  the  first  gospel  to 
appear  in  its  present  form;  it  is  a  record  of 
the  works  of  Christ.  Matthew  is  made  up 
of  Mark,  plus  records  of  the  words  of 
Christ.  Luke  is  made  up  of  Mark,  plus 
records  of  other  words  of  Christ.  These 
three  are  called  the  synoptic  gospels  be- 
cause, taken  together,  they  present  a 
synopsis  or  general  view  of  the  life  of 
Christ.  They  are  narrative  gospels.  John 
is  an  interpretive  gospel,  dealing  mainly 
with  the  ministry  of  Jesus  in  Judea  rather 
than  in  Galilee,  and  regarding  Him  in  the 
light  of  Christian  reflection  and  devotion. 
The  Acts  is  a  narrative  of  the  ministry 
first  of  St.  Peter,  then  of  St.  Paul.  It  is  an 
account  of  the  beginnings  of  the  Christian 
Church. 

Of  the  twenty-one  letters  contained  in  the 
New  Testament,  fourteen  are  conveniently 
called  Pauline,  though  this  includes  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  whose  authorship 
is  unknown;  seven  are  called  Catholic, 
most  of  them  being  addressed  not  to  des- 

9 


THE  BIBLE 


ignated  Churches,  but  to  the  faithful  in 
general.  Six  of  the  Pauline  epistles  are 
connected  with  St.  Paul's  Missionary 
journeys:  First  and  Second  Thessalonians, 
Galatians,  First  and  Second  Corinthians, 
Romans.  Seven  of  them  are  connected 
with  his  imprisonment  in  Rome:  Ephesians, 
Philippians,  Colossians,  two  to  Timothy, 
one  to  Titus,  one  to  Philemon.  The  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  brings  counsel  and  comfort 
to  Christians  in  peril  of  Roman  persecu- 
tion; they  are  reminded  of  the  preciousness 
of  their  religion  and  of  the  courage  and 
constancy  of  the  brave  men  of  old.  The 
Catholic  epistles  include  one  of  James,  two 
of  Peter,  three  of  John,  and  one  of  Jude. 
They  are  addressed,  for  the  most  part,  to 
churches  in  peril  of  persecution  from  with- 
out or  of  heresy  from  within. 

In  the  last  book  of  the  New  Testament 
persecution  seems  to  be  in  force.  The 
Revelation  belongs  to  a  kind  of  writing 
called  apocalyptic,  of  which  the  book  of 
Daniel  is  another  illustration.  Such  books 
were  addressed  to  the  faithful  in  their 
distress  at  the  hands  of  victorious  enemies; 
they  contain  promises  of  the  overthrow  of 
the  persecuting  power;  and  for  the  protec- 
10 


THE  BIBLE 


tion  of  the  writer  they  make  use  of  symbols 
rather  than  of  plain  statements,  represent- 
ing the  oppressors  under  the  form  of 
strange  beasts.  Thus  Daniel  was  intended 
to  encourage  the  Jews  oppressed  by  the 
Greeks  under  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  and 
Revelation  was  intended  to  encourage  the 
Christians  oppressed  by  the  Romans  under 
Nero  and  his  imperial  successors. 

II 

The  Bible,  thus  consisting  of  the  collec- 
tion of  these  various  writings,  is  an  in- 
spired book. 

i.  Inspiration,  after  all  discussion  of  it, 
remains  a  mystery,  but  the  mystery  is  not 
peculiar  to  religion.  It  is  to  be  considered 
in  connection  with  other  experiences. 
Especially,  it  is  to  be  understood  in  its  rela- 
tion to  the  mystery  which  we  call  genius. 
Here  is  a  man  of  unusual  sensitiveness  to 
the  conditions  of  the  physical  world:  he 
sees  the  meanings  of  things,  and  is  thereby 
made  a  man  of  science;  or  he  sees  the 
splendor  and  the  beauty  of  the  landscape, 
and  is  thereby  made  an  artist  or  a  poet. 
Here  is  one  who  is  similarly  sensitive  to 
the  world  of  humanity;  he  sees  into  the 

ii 


THE  BIBLE 


hearts  of  men  and  understands  their  works; 
it  is  a  divine  quality  which  makes  artists 
and  poets  and  also  novelists  and  dram- 
atists, also  leaders  of  thought  and  leaders 
of  action.  These  uncommonly  sensitive 
persons  are  thus  temperamentally  able  to 
see  more  than  we  can  see,  to  understand 
more,  and  to  say  more.  When  they  possess 
these  qualities  in  a  high  degree  we  call 
them  men  of  genius.  Out  of  the  vast,  in- 
discriminate production  of  their  day  their 
works  survive  when  the  works  of  their  com- 
monplace neighbors  are  forgotten.  Plato 
was  a  man  of  genius,  Phidias  was  a  man 
of  genius,  Homer  was  a  man  of  genius; 
so  was  Shakespeare,  so  was  Bacon,  so  were 
Beethoven,  Newton,  Darwin,  and  several 
hundred  others.  These  men  are  mysteries. 
We  cannot  explain  them  by  the  ordinary 
rules  of  cause  and  effect.  Somehow  they 
saw  and  heard  and  spoke.  Somehow  they 
were  different  from  others. 

When  this  uncommon  sensitiveness  is 
possessed  by  men  in  relation  to  the  spir- 
itual world  it  is  called  inspiration.  Here 
is  one  who  has  a  singular  consciousness 
of  the  divine  presence  in  the  world;  he  hears 
the  voice  of  God  speaking  in  his  soul;  he 

12 


THE  BIBLE 


understands  and  is  able  to  interpret  to  us 
the  will  of  God.  In  the  course  of  history, 
in  the  rise  and  fall  of  nations,  in  the  face  of 
victory  or  defeat,  and  also  in  the  events  of 
common  life,  he  perceives  God.  He  is  like 
the  great  statesman  of  whom  it  was  said 
that  he  saw  stars  where  his  neighbors  saw 
nothing  but  gray  cloud.  We  do  not  know, 
neither  does  he  know,  how  or  why  he  is  so 
different  from  us.  But  he  is.  When  he 
writes  or  speaks  we  come  into  conscious- 
ness of  truth  such  as  we  never  knew  be- 
fore; he  shows  us  the  significance  of  our 
own  life.  He  lifts  his  hand  and  the  horizon 
widens  before  our  eyes.  He  deals  with  us  as 
the  prophet  dealt  with  his  servant  for  whom 
he  prayed  when  they  two  seemed  to  be 
alone  and  defenceless  in  the  face  of  ad- 
vancing foes,  and  behold  the  mountain 
side,  which  a  moment  before  had  showed 
only  the  gray  of  the  rocks  and  the  green 
of  the  trees,  suddenly  blazed  with  rank 
upon  rank  of  celestial  soldiers,  come  to 
their  defence  against  the  mighty. 

These  men  are  inspired.  They  are  not 
essentially  different  from  other  men  of 
genius,  who  like  them  are  shining  miracles 
in  the  common  world,  but  their  genius  is 


13 


THE  BIBLE 


in  the  province  of  religion.  There  it  is  that 
they  are  impressionable  and  sensitive. 
Such  a  man  was  Moses,  in  whose  sight  the 
bush  was  filled  with  flame.  Such  was 
Isaiah,  who  saw  the  Lord  high  and  lifted 
up,  and  heard  the  angels  chanting  the 
Thrice-Holy.  Such  were  most  of  the  men 
who  wrote  the  Bible.  They  were  men  of 
genius  in  religion.  We  inquire  in  vain  how 
their  inspiration  should  be  distinguished 
from  the  inspiration  of  other  great  men. 
We  inquire  in  vain  where  the  lines  of  in- 
spiration in  religion  should  be  drawn, 
whether  to  include  all  of  the  authors  of 
the  Bible  books,  or  to  include  others  beside 
them.  We  are  dealing  with  a  mysterious 
quality  which  defies  all  of  our  accurate 
classifications.  We  are  to  understand, 
however,  that  this  mystery  is  not  a  thing 
apart  from  human  life,  a  monopoly  of 
religion,  a  divine  procedure  which  has  no 
confirmation  in  human  experience  out- 
side of  the  Bible.  It  is  a  valid  part  of 
the  universal  way  of  God  with  man.  The 
mystery  remains,  but  it  takes  its  place  in 
the  manifold  mystery  of  human  life. 

2.  Sometimes,  in  exceptional  moments 
of  genius,  and  to  exceptional  persons, 

14 


THE  BIBLE 


there  comes  that  extraordinary  achieve- 
ment which  we  call  discovery.  The  man 
of  genius,  fitted  for  the  pursuit  of  truth  by 
the  sensitiveness  of  his  soul,  comes  upon 
a  fact,  or  law,  or  truth,  which  nobody  ever 
knew  before;  or  rather  which  everybody 
knew  without  knowing  it,  which  had  been 
in  the  dim  consciousness  of  man  from  the 
beginning,  which  when  it  is  proclaimed  is 
recognized  by  all  men,  but  which  had  never 
been  proclaimed.  Copernicus  discovers 
the  relation  between  the  earth  and  the 
stars,  Newton  discovers  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion, Darwin  discovers  the  law  of  evolu- 
tion. Suddenly,  into  the  minds  of  these 
men,  flashed  a  knowledge  of  the  truth. 

When  this  takes  place  in  the  realm  of 
religion  it  is  called  revelation.  To  the  in- 
spired man,  with  his  soul  open  to  the  world 
invisible,  with  his  spiritual  hearing  acute 
to  distinguish  amidst  the  confusion  of 
sounds  the  voice  of  God,  comes  a  sudden, 
profoundly  mysterious,  knowledge  of  God. 
Thus,  perhaps  to  Abraham,  came  a  revela- 
tion of  the  oneness  of  God.  Thus  to  Moses 
came  a  compelling  sense  of  leadership. 
Thus  Hosea  perceived,  in  the  perplexities 
of  his  own  domestic  experience,  that  God 

15 


THE  BIBLE 


is  love.  These  revelations  are  at  the 
heart  of  the  Bible,  as  like  revelations  in 
science,  in  philosophy,  in  art,  are  at  the 
heart  of  human  progress.  They  rise  to 
heights  supreme  in  the  life  and  teaching 
of  Jesus  Christ.  These  revelations  the 
inspired  men  understand,  and  gradually 
by  slow  processes  adapted  to  our  dulness, 
they  make  us  understand. 

The  Bible  is  thus  the  Word  of  God. 
Not  the  words  of  God  —  the  words  are 
the  inadequate  expression,  sometimes  de- 
fective, sometimes  mistaken,  of  the  truths 
which  inspired  men  received  as  they  were 
able  to  receive  them,  and  wrote  down 
according  to  their  ability  in  writing.  The 
Bible  is  the  Word  of  God,  —  the  message 
of  God,  the  supreme  communication  in  all 
history  of  the  will  of  God.  We  know  that, 
because  all  the  other  Bibles  of  the  other 
religions  have  been  translated  into  our 
own  language,  and  we  can  compare  them. 
We  do  not  need  to  protect  the  Bible  by 
any  artificial  barriers  of  doctrine.  It  is 
its  own  defence  and  commendation. 

This  book  will  inspire  us  if  we  bring 
ourselves  within  the  range  of  its  influence. 
It  will  make  us  wise  unto  salvation.  It 
16 


THE  BIBLE 


will  give  us  guidance  in  our  perplexities, 
strength  in  our  temptations,  comfort  in 
our  troubles.  It  has  been  doing  that  for 
two  thousand  years.  We  are  to  read  it. 
We  are  to  set  ourselves  assisting  rules 
which  shall  bring  us  to  this  spiritual  exer- 
cise at  a  certain  time  every  day.  Especially 
the  gospels,  as  the  record  of  the  ideal  life, 
and  the  epistles  as  the  interpretation  of  it, 
and  the  psalms  as  the  expression  of  our 
faith  and  adoration  and  penitence  and 
praise:  these  are  to  be  read,  and  portions 
of  them  learned  by  heart.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment teachers  were  insistent  upon  this: 
"these  words  shall  be  in  thine  heart." 
Our  Lord,  in  His  temptation  and  again 
upon  the  cross,  called  to  remembrance 
great  sentences  from  the  great  books. 


17 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


I.   The  Contents  of  the  Prayer  Book 

1.  Lessons  and  days 

2.  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer 

preparation — praise — prayer 

3.  Holy  Communion 

(1)  For  the  congregation  in  general 

(2)  For  the  communicants 

4.  Other  services 

EE.   The  History  of  the  Prayer  Book 

1.  In  Hebrew 

2.  In  Greek 

A  communion  service  of  the  fourth 
century 

3.  In  Latin 

4.  In  English 

III.   The  Value  of  the  Prayer  Book 

1.  It  has  the  advantage  of  association 

2.  It  serves  the  purposes 

(1)  of  protection 

(2)  of  proportion 

(3)  of  participation 


21 


II 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 
I 

Various  tables  and  directions  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
are  concerned  mainly  with  two  matters :  the 
calendar  of  lessons  and  the  calendar  of  days. 

i.  Prefixed  to  the  tables  of  lessons  is  the 
order  for  reading  the  book  of  Psalms,  called 
the  Psalter.  The  Psalms,  printed  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  Prayer  Book,  are  divided 
into  sixty  parts,  providing  for  the  morning 
and  evening  of  every  day  in  the  month. 
There  is  a  table  of  "proper  psalms"  for 
certain  days,  and  a  table  of  twenty  selec- 
tions from  which  psalms  may  be  chosen 
instead  of  those  appointed  for  any  day  of 
the  month,  and  for  the  last  day  when  there 
are  thirty-one.  The  Psalms  (which  were 
first  printed  in  full  in  the  Prayer  Book  in 
1604)  are  in  the  translation  of  Miles  Cov- 
erdale  in  the  "  Great  Bible  "  of  1539. 

The  word  "lesson,"  as  here  used,  means 
22 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


a  reading,  and  is  applied  to  the  two  long 
passages  from  the  Bible  which  are  read  at 
Morning  and  Evening  Prayer:  the  "first 
lesson"  from  the  Old  Testament,  the  "sec- 
ond lesson"  from  the  New.  The  tables  of 
lessons  provide  for  Sundays,  for  Holy  Days, 
for  Lent,  and  then,  month  by  month,  for 
every  day  in  the  year. 

The  calendar  of  days  gives  a  list  of  all  the 
feasts  and  fasts  of  the  year.  Some  of  these 
are  "immovable,"  occurring  always  on  the 
same  day  of  the  month.  All  of  the  saints' 
days  are  in  this  list.  Others  are  "movable," 
depending  on  the  date  of  the  First  Sunday 
in  Advent,  or  on  the  date  of  Easter. 

The  First  Sunday  in  Advent  is  always 
the  Sunday  nearest  to  St.  Andrew's  Day, 
the  thirtieth  of  November,  whether  before 
or  after.  'Easter  Day  is  always  the  first 
Sunday  after  the  full  moon  which  happens 
upon  or  next  after  the  twenty-first  day  of 
March,  the  vernal  equinox.  The  day  of  the 
full  moon  after  the  vernal  equinox  is  the 
traditional  date  of  the  Passover;  Sunday 
is  the  day  in  the  Passover  week  on  which 
our  Lord  rose  from  the  dead.  Since  the 
moon  repeats  its  changes  every  nineteen 
years,  an  arrangement  of  nineteen  Golden 

23 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


Numbers  indicates  the  days  on  which  the 
moon  may  be  full  between  the  twenty-first 
of  March  and  the  eighteenth  of  April.  An 
arrangement  of  seven  Sunday  Letters,  one 
for  each  day  of  the  week,  indicates  what 
days  of  the  month  are  Sundays.  Con- 
venient annual  almanacs  give  the  results 
of  these  calculations. 

2.  "Finding  the  places"  in  the  Prayer 
Book  is  made  easy  by  following  the  direc- 
tions which  are  given  in  the  rubrics.  These 
sentences  in  italics  are  intended  to  tell  the 
minister  and  the  people  what  to  do. 

The  Order  for  Morning  Prayer  and  the 
Order  for  Evening  Prayer  are  each  in  three 
parts.  The  first  part  begins  with  a  sen- 
tence from  the  Bible,  includes  an  address 
by  the  minister,  the  saying  of  a  general 
confession  of  sin,  and  the  pronouncing  of 
an  absolution  or  declaration  of  God's  prom- 
ise to  pardon  the  penitent,  and  ends  with 
the  Lord's  Prayer.  The  second  part  begins 
with  versicles  and  responses,  includes  the 
singing  or  saying  of  Psalms  beginning  (in 
the  morning)  with  the  ninety-fifth  (called 
Venite  from  its  first  word  in  Latin),  the 
reading  of  an  Old  Testament  lesson,  fol- 
lowed by  the  Te  Deum  or  the  Benedicite 
24 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


or  in  the  evening  by  the  Magnificat  or 
other  Psalms;  and  of  a  New  Testament 
lesson,  followed  by  the  Benedictus  or  the 
Jubilate  or  in  the  evening  by  the  Nunc 
Dimittis  or  other  Psalms;  and  ends  with  the 
Creed.  The  third  part  begins  with  versicles 
and  responses,  includes  a  series  of  prayers, 
and  ends  with  what  is  called  the  Apostolic 
Benediction.  Thus  the  note  of  the  first 
part  is  Preparation,  the  note  of  the  second 
part  is  Praise,  the  note  of  the  third  part  is 
Prayer. 

The  Litany,  which  follows,  may  be  used 
as  a  separate  service  or  said  after  the  third 
collect  of  Morning  or  Evening  Prayer. 
Special  prayers  are  provided  to  be  used, 
when  desired,  before  the  General  Thanks- 
giving, and  special  Thanksgivings  to  be 
used  after  it.  A  Penitential  Office  for  Ash 
Wednesday,  which  may  be  used  at  any 
time  as  a  separate  service,  concludes  that 
part  of  the  Prayer  Book  which  contains  the 
Daily  Services. 

Then  come  the  Sacramental  Services. 
First,  the  Holy  Communion,  then  Baptism. 

3.  For  use  in  the  Holy  Communion  a  col- 
lect, epistle  and  gospel  are  provided  for 
every  Sunday  and  Holy  Day  in  the  year. 

25 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


The  Church  Year,  like  the  year  of  nature, 
has  its  seasons :  first,  Advent,  in  December, 
a  preparation  for  Christmas;  then  Epiph- 
any, meaning  the  manifestation  or  reveal- 
ing of  Christ  to  the  world;  then,  after  three 
preparatory  Sundays,  Lent,  a  penitential 
preparation  for  Easter,  ending  with  Holy 
Week  and  Good  Friday,  the  anniversary 
of  the  crucifixion  of  our  Lord;  then  Easter, 
commemorating  His  resurrection,  followed 
by  Ascension  Day,  and  Whitsunday  the 
anniversary  of  the  coming  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  upon  the  disciples  as  described  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Acts.  With  Trinity  Sun- 
day the  second  half  of  the  year  begins,  a 
long  series  of  Sundays  not  named  but  num- 
bered. 

The  Communion  Service,  into  which  the 
proper  collect,  epistle  and  gospel  are  in- 
serted week  by  week,  is  in  two  parts. 

The  first  part  is  for  the  congregation  in 
general.  After  the  Commandments,  as  a 
penitential  preparation,  come  the  collect, 
epistle  and  gospel;  then  the  Creed,  unless 
it  has  been  said  already;  then  the  Sermon; 
and  after  that,  the  Offertory.  At  this 
point,  the  service  may  end  with  a  prayer 
and  blessing,  but  if  the  Communion  is  to 
26 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


follow,  it  ends  with  a  prayer  "for  the  whole 
state  of  Christ's  Church  militant."  After 
this  prayer,  those  who  are  not  communi- 
cants go  out. 

The  second  part  is  for  communicants  only. 
It  begins  with  Preparation:  an  address,  a 
general  confession,  an  absolution,  a  read- 
ing of  certain  "comfortable  words";  then 
the  priest  says  "Lift  up  your  hearts,"  and 
the  people  answer,  "We  lift  them  up  unto 
the  Lord";  the  priest  and  people  together 
say  or  sing,  "Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord  God  of 
Hosts,"  and  the  preparation  ends  with  the 
"prayer  of  humble  access."  Then  comes 
the  Prayer  of  Consecration:  a  recitation  of 
our  Lord's  words  at  the  Last  Supper,  an 
offering  of  the  bread  and  wine  as  a  memo- 
rial of  His  precious  death,  an  invocation 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  bless  these  gifts  that 
we  may  be  partakers  of  the  blessed  Body 
and  Blood,  and  an  intercession  for  the 
whole  Church  and  especially  for  those 
present.  After  that  the  bread  and  wine 
are  given  to  the  communicants  who  come 
up  and  kneel  at  the  Holy  Table.  The  serv- 
ice ends  with  Thanksgiving,  concluding  with 
the  Gloria  in  Excelsis  and  the  benediction. 

4.  Baptismal  services  provide  for  the 

27 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


public  baptism  of  infants,  with  an  office  for 
baptism  in  private  in  cases  of  illness,  and 
the  baptism  of  "such  as  are  of  riper  years 
and  able  to  answer  for  themselves." 

The  next  division  of  the  book  contains 
Occasional  Services:  Confirmation,  preceded 
by  a  Catechism,  Solemnization  of  Matri- 
mony, Visitation  of  the  Sick,  Burial  of 
the  Dead,  Thanksgiving  after  Childbirth, 
Prayers  at  Sea,  Visitation  of  Prisoners,  a 
Service  for  Thanksgiving  Day,  and  Forms 
of  Prayer  to  be  Used  in  Families. 

After  the  Psalter  come  the  Episcopal 
Services,  i.  e.,  those  which  are  used  by 
bishops:  the  Ordering  of  Deacons,  the  Or- 
dering of  Priests,  the  Consecration  of 
Bishops,  including  the  Litany  and  the 
Communion  Service  which  are  here  re- 
peated because  this  part  is  a  book  by  itself 
bound  for  convenience  with  the  Prayer 
Book;  then  a  Form  of  Consecration  of  a 
Church,  and  an  Office  of  Institution  of 
Ministers,  used  when  a  new  rector  takes 
charge  of  a  parish. 

Finally,  the  Articles  of  Religion  are  added 
to  the  book,  being  statements  of  faith 
drawn  up  in  the  midst  of  the  controversies 
of  the  sixteenth  century. 
28 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


II 

The  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  whose 
contents  we  have  thus  considered,  has 
grown  into  its  present  form  during  a  space 
of  nearly  two  thousand  years. 

i.  It  began  as  a  Hebrew  book,  and  in 
that  form  was  used  by  our  Lord  and  His 
apostles. 

The  synagogue  service  to  which  they 
were  accustomed  began  with  the  recitation 
of  sentences  of  Scripture,  followed  by  a 
series  of  prayers  and  praises  called  the 
Eighteen  Benedictions.  Psalms  were  sung, 
and  two  lessons  were  read,  one  from  the 
law,  the  other  from  the  prophets.  The  ex- 
planation of  these  lessons  set  the  example 
of  the  sermon.  Thus  appeared  in  Hebrew 
the  beginnings  of  the  Daily  Prayers. 

The  direct  origin  of  the  Holy  Commun- 
ion was  in  the  Passover  Supper,  but  it  was 
also  related  to  the  family  prayers  of  every 
Jewish  household.  On  the  eve  of  the  Sab- 
bath, the  head  of  the  family  stood  at  the 
table  with  a  cup  of  wine  in  his  right  hand, 
and  his  left  hand  on  a  loaf  of  bread,  and 
blessed  and  distributed  the  bread  and  wine. 
The  custom  continues  among  the  Jews  to 


29 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


this  day  (Oesterley :  "  Religion  and  Worship 
of  the  Synagogue,"  p.  346). 

The  Hebrew  word  A  men  remains  to  re- 
mind us  of  the  time  when  all  the  services 
were  in  that  language. 

2.  Then  the  church  grew  till  a  majority 
of  Christians  were  Greeks  rather  than 
Hebrews,  and  the  Prayer  Book  was  trans- 
lated into  Greek.  About  the  year  350, 
St.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  wrote  out  the  in- 
structions which  he  was  accustomed  to  give 
to  his  confirmation  classes.  Among  other 
teachings  he  explained  the  Communion 
Service,  point  by  point.  We  learn  from 
these  instructions  that  the  service  pro- 
ceeded according  to  this  order: 

1.  Ablutions 

2.  Kiss  of  peace 

3.  Lift  up  your  hearts 

4.  It  is  meet  and  right 

5.  Holy,  holy,  holy 

6.  Invocation  of  the  Holy  Spirit 

7.  Intercession  for  the  living 

8.  Intercession  for  the  dead 

9.  Lord's  Prayer 

10.  Holy  things  to  holy  people 

11.  Communion 

12.  Thanksgiving 

30 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


The  "Kiss  of  peace"  has  been  disused,  sur- 
viving, in  our  service,  only  in  the  benedic- 
tion of  peace  at  the  end;  and  the  words  of 
the  priest  "  Holy  things  to  holy  people  "  are 
no  longer  said.  Otherwise,  the  service  was 
much  as  we  have  it  to-day.  The  "institu- 
tion" is  omitted  by  St.  Cyril,  —  the  words 
of  our  Lord  over  the  bread  and  wine;  but 
this  was  perhaps  held  back  from  the  candi- 
dates till  they  came  actually  to  the  service 
itself. 

About  the  same  time,  —  the  middle  of 
the  fourth  century  —  we  have  in  a  book 
called  The  Apostolic  Constitutions  a  com- 
plete communion  service,  in  this  order: 

I.   For  the  Congregation  in  General 

1.  Lessons,  from  the  Old  Testament 

2.  Psalms 

3.  Epistle  and  Gospel 

4.  Sermon 

5.  Dismissal 

II.   For  the  Communicants  only 

1.  Prayer  for  the  faithful 

2.  Kiss  of  peace 

3.  Ablutions,  and  offering  of  bread  and 

wine 

4.  Lift  up  your  hearts 

5.  It  is  meet  and  right 

31 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


6.  Holy,  holy,  holy 

7.  Words  of  institution 

8.  Oblation  and  invocation  of  the  Holy 

Spirit 

9.  Intercession 

10.  Holy  things  to  holy  people 

11.  Communion 

12.  Thanksgiving  and  benediction 

Such  a  service,  following  an  order  which 
was  for  the  most  part  invariable,  but  with 
the  prayers  and  praises  largely  in  the 
words  of  the  minister,  was  general  in  the 
church  of  that  day.  Nobody  knows  how 
old  it  was  at  that  time. 

3.  The  church  continued  to  grow  till 
side  by  side  with  the  Christians  who  spoke 
Greek  were  many  other  Christians  who 
spoke  Latin.  For  their  use  the  services 
were  translated.  About  that  time  the 
spread  of  monasticism  magnified  the  im- 
portance of  the  daily  prayers.  Eight 
times  every  day  the  monks  had  a  little 
sendee  of  psalm  singing  and  Bible-reading 
and  prayer:  "Vespers  at  Sunset,  Compline 
at  bed-time,  Nocturns  or  Matins  at  mid- 
night or  early  dawn,  Lauds  at  sunrise, 
Prime  at  the  beginning  of  work,  Tierce  at 
the  third  hour  or  middle  of  the  morning, 


32 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


Sexts  at  the  sixth  hour  or  midday,  Nones 
at  the  ninth  hour  or  middle  of  the  after- 
noon." This  Latin  Prayer  Book  was  not 
a  new  composition.  It  was  the  Greek  book 
translated,  improved,  enriched  and  adapted 
to  the  use  of  Westerners.  We  are  reminded 
of  it  by  the  Latin  names  for  the  Psalms 
throughout  our  book.  These  were  the  first 
words  of  the  Latin  psalms,  as  "Nearer  my 
God  to  Thee"  begins  an  English  hymn. 

4.  At  last  the  time  came  when  there  was 
a  whole  nation  of  Christians  whose  native 
tongue  was  English.  For  their  benefit  the 
Prayer  Book  which  had  been  translated 
with  improvements,  out  of  Hebrew  into 
Greek,  and  out  of  Greek  into  Latin,  was 
again  translated  with  further  improve- 
ments. Not  much  change  was  made  in  the 
Communion  Service,  except  somewhat  to 
simplify  it.  But  the  daily  prayers,  which 
in  the  form  of  eight  services  had  been 
adapted  to  the  lives  of  monks  but  not  to 
the  lives  of  ordinary  people,  were  con- 
densed into  two.  Vespers  and  Compline 
were  put  together  to  make  Evening  Prayer. 
Nocturns,  Matins,  Lauds  and  Prime  were 
put  together  to  make  Morning  Prayer. 
Thus  in  Morning  Prayer  the  Venite,  the 


33 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


Te  Deum,  the  Benedicite,  the  Benedictus 
stand  in  that  order  because  they  so  stood 
in  the  Latin  book:  so  in  Evening  Prayer, 
with  the  Magnificat  and  the  Nunc  Dim- 
ittis.  Errors  which  had  crept  into  the 
services  during  the  Middle  Ages  were  now 
corrected,  the  Bible  was  read  at  greater 
length,  the  musical  parts  were  shortened, 
but  the  new  book  was  substantially  the 
old  one,  again  as  in  the  past  translated  and 
improved. 

Ill 

i.  A  book  with  such  a  history  has  the 
advantage  of  association. 

It  is  like  a  venerable  cathedral,  built 
centuries  ago  and  many  times  enriched 
and  enlarged,  having  the  handiwork  of 
Normans  and  Saxons  and  English,  showing 
the  scars  of  old  wars,  representing  the 
annals  of  a  people.  Thus  the  Cathedral 
of  St.  John  the  Divine  in  New  York  can 
never,  by  any  ability  of  architects,  equal 
Westminster  Abbey.  Into  the  Abbey  is 
built  the  life  of  the  nation,  from  Edward 
the  Confessor  to  the  Great  German  War. 
In  the  same  way  these  ancient  prayers,  and 
the  services  in  which  they  stand,  have  a 


34 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


quality  which  no  new  compositions  possess. 
Here  is  the  Te  Deum,  written  about  the 
year  400  by  a  missionary  bishop  in  Servia, 
and  sung  on  a  thousand  occasions  of  na- 
tional rejoicing  which  have  marked  the 
progress  of  history.  Here  are  versicles  and 
responses  arranged  about  the  year  500  by 
St.  Benedict.  Here  are  collects  for  peace 
which  were  first  prayed  when  the  bar- 
barians were  battering  the  walls  of  Rome. 

The  book  associates  itself  also  with  our 
individual  life,  with  our  own  experiences 
and  joys  and  sorrows.  People  who  are  un- 
accustomed to  printed  prayers  sometimes 
ask  if  we  do  not  find  them  monotonous  and 
wearisome;  and  we  are  able  to  say  in 
answer  that  they  grow  more  significant 
and  uplifting  year  by  year. 

2.  The  Prayer  Book  serves  the  purposes 
of  protection,  of  proportion,  and  of  par- 
ticipation. 

It  protects  the  clergy  from  the  necessity 
of  literary  composition  in  the  progress  of 
their  prayers,  and  from  the  subtle  tempta- 
tions which  go  along  with  it.  And  it  pro- 
tects the  congregation,  in  great  measure, 
from  the  eccentricities  of  the  parson.  It 
provides  prayers  which  are  not  affected 

35 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


by  the  size  of  the  congregation,  by  the 
annoyances  of  the  weather,  by  the  health 
of  the  minister,  or  by  his  inevitable  limita- 
tions. They  insure  the  people  a  reverent 
service,  on  a  high  spiritual  plane. 

The  book  has  the  quality  of  proportion. 
The  result  of  ages  of  ministration  to  human 
needs,  it  voices  all  manner  of  petitions  and 
serves  all  temperaments.  Its  arrange- 
ment of  religious  seasons  brings  all  the 
essential  truths  of  religion  one  after  an- 
other into  the  prayers  and  into  the  ser- 
mons. 

And  the  book  provides  for  the  participa- 
tion of  the  people.  It  is  a  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  in  which  the  people  as  well  as  the 
priest  have  part.  It  belongs  to  both 
priest  and  people,  and  to  the  one  no  more 
than  to  the  other.  Also  it  takes  into  ac- 
count the  whole  being  of  the  worshipper  — 
soul  and  mind  and  body.  It  is  constructed 
on  the  psychological  principle  that  the  body 
affects  both  mind  and  soul,  as  a  lounging 
attitude  induces  lounging  thoughts.  Thus 
for  better  attention  and  devotion  there 
are  changes  of  posture :  We  stand  in  praise, 
and  sit  while  we  are  being  taught,  and 
kneel  to  pray.   We  kneel,  as  the  English 

36 


THE  PRAYER  BOOK 


Prayer  Book  says  with  great  plainness  of 
speech,  On  our  knees. 

One  says,  "But  prayer  is  conversation 
with  God,  and  conversation  has  no  use  for 
printed  pages;  when  I  talk  with  my  friend 
I  don't  read  what  I  say  out  of  a  book." 
The  difficulty  here  is  a  confusion  between 
private  and  public  prayers.  If  you  were 
to  address  your  friend  in  a  good,  loud  voice 
in  the  hearing  of  several  hundred  people 
and  on  their  behalf,  you  would  be  wise  to 
write  down  with  some  care  beforehand 
what  you  intended  to  say.  The  Prayer 
Book  may  be  used  in  private,  and  is  found 
helpful  for  that  purpose,  but  it  was  pre- 
pared to  be  used  in  public.  Even  so,  there 
are  some  who  can  pray  in  public  in  their 
own  immediate  words,  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  make  us  realize  the  presence  of  God. 
When  this  happens,  we  enter  into  a  great 
spiritual  experience.  But  it  does  not 
happen  often,  or  with  many.  The  Prayer 
Book  takes  that  into  account. 


37 


BAPTISM 


BAPTISM 


I.   The  Nature  of  a  Sacrament 
II.   The  Outward  Sign  in  Baptism 

1.  Water:  immersion  and  affusion 

2.  Words:  signature  and  seal 

III.  The  Inward  Grace  in  Baptism 

1.  Remission 

2.  Regeneration 

3.  Initiation 

Members  of  Christ,  children  of  God, 
Inheritors  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven 

IV.  The  Recipients  of  Baptism 

1.  Originally  adults 

2.  Then  infants 

The  influence  of  "original  sin" 
The  influence  of  parental  affection 
The  provision  of  sponsors 


41 


in 


BAPTISM 
I 

Baptism  is  a  sacrament;  and  a  sacrament 
is  "an  outward  and  visible  sign  of  an  in- 
ward and  spiritual  grace."  It  sounds  like 
a  difficult  definition,  but  it  is  easily  illumi- 
nated by  illustration.  The  clasp  of  a  hand 
may  be  the  outward  and  visible  sign  of  the 
inward  and  spiritual  grace  of  approval,  or 
congratulation,  or  sympathy,  or  affection. 
The  sound  of  a  word  may  be  the  outward 
and  audible  sign  of  any  one  of  a  thousand 
kinds  of  inward  and  spiritual  grace.  It 
may  convey  counsel,  command,  promise, 
assent,  pardon,  inspiration,  benediction. 
Thus  it  used  to  be  said  by  devout  writers 
that  the  world  is  filled  with  sacraments. 
All  nature  is  sacramental,  all  life  is  sacra- 
mental. 

Baptism  and  the  Holy  Communion  dif- 
fer from  these  other  sacraments  in  the  fact 
that  they  were  "ordained  by  Christ  Him- 
42 


BAPTISM 


self."  Confirmation,  ordination,  penance, 
marriage  are  outward  and  visible  signs  of 
inward  and  spiritual  grace,  but  they  do  not 
have  their  qrigin  in  our  Lord's  appoint- 
ment. 

The  grace  which  is  given  in  the  sacra- 
ments of  the  church  is  akin  to  the  grace 
which  is  given  in  the  sacraments  with 
which  the  world  is  filled.  Whatever  helps 
us  spiritually,  lifting  up  our  hearts,  rein- 
forcing us  against  temptation,  stirring  us 
to  new  resolution,  giving  us  new  patience 
or  courage  or  comfort  or  consciousness  of 
God  is  grace.  Grace  comes  by  the  reading 
of  a  good  book  whereby  we  are  made  better. 
Grace  comes  by  the  influence  of  a  good 
friend.  The  grace  which  comes  by  the 
sacraments  of  baptism  and  the  holy  com- 
munion is  a  like  spiritual  benefit.  It  is  not 
peculiar  to  religion,  but  is  a  part  of  the 
ministration  of  God  to  the  soul  of  man  in 
universal  human  experience. 

II 

The  outward  sign  in  baptism  is  water 
with  the  use  of  certain  words. 

i.  In  its  original  form  baptism  was  prob- 
ably administered  by  immersion.  No  spe- 

43 


BAPTISM 


cial  importance,  however,  seems  to  have 
been  attached  to  the  ritual  of  the  sacra- 
ment. It  is  true  that  in  the  early  church 
the  baptistry  was  a  building  containing  a 
large  tank,  into  which  those  who  were  to 
be  baptized  descended.  It  is  true  also  that 
in  the  Prayer  Book  immersion  is  the  pre- 
ferred form;  the  minister  is  to  dip  the  child 
in  the  water  discreetly  or  pour  water  upon 
him.  But  the  baptism  "with  fire"  on  the 
Day  of  Pentecost  was  not  an  immersion: 
the  fire  was  on  their  heads.  The  saving  of 
Noah  and  his  family  in  the  flood  is  taken 
as  a  type  of  baptism  (I  Peter  3:20,  21); 
so  is  also  the  baptizing  of  the  children  of 
Israel  in  the  Red  Sea  (I  Corinthians  10: 
1,  2).  In  each  of  these  cases  the  important 
fact  is  that  the  people  were  not  immersed: 
that  is  what  they  escaped.  Baptism  is  also 
a  symbol  of  burial;  but  the  church's  part  in 
burial  is  not  the  filling  of  the  grave  but  the 
pouring  of  earth  on  the  coffin.  Often,  in 
ancient  Christian  art,  the  minister  and  the 
person  to  be  baptized  are  represented  as 
standing  in  the  water  of  a  river  and  the 
minister  is  pouring  water  on  the  person's 
head.  Thus  they  pictured  the  baptism  of 
our  Lord. 


44 


BAPTISM 


Baptism  is  now  commonly  administered 
by  affusion,  i.  e.,  by  pouring,  because  this 
way  is  more  convenient.  The  change  ac- 
companied the  extension  of  the  Christian 
religion  into  colder  countries.  It  was  made 
not  by  the  formalities  of  canon  law  but  by 
the  natural  application  of  common  sense. 
The  ritual  of  the  other  sacrament  was 
similarly  changed  to  meet  the  change  of 
custom.  It  was  originally  given  to  persons 
who,  according  to  ancient  manners,  reclined 
at  the  table.  The  particular  form  of  ritual 
is  of  no  great  importance.  The  amount  of 
water  and  the  way  in  which  it  is  used  have 
no  essential  sacredness.  All  that  is  nec- 
essary is  water. 

2.  Along  with  this  are  certain  necessary 
words.  In  several  places  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment the  name  of  Christ  seems  to  be  consid- 
ered sufficient  (Acts  2:38,  Acts  8:16).  In 
another  place  the  direction  is  to  baptize  in 
the  Name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  (Matthew  28:19).  The 
longer  form  is  set  forth  in  the  Prayer  Book. 
Baptism  is  represented  as  a  covenant  or 
solemn  agreement.  The  water  is  like  the 
seal  which  is  affixed  to  solemn  agreements 
which  are  made  in  writing,  and  the  two 

45 


BAPTISM 


names  —  the  name  of  the  person  baptized 
and  the  name  of  God  —  are  like  the  sig- 
natures of  those  thus  solemnly  agreeing. 
On  the  human  side  the  promise  is  to  re- 
nounce the  devil,  the  world,  and  the  flesh, 
and  obediently  to  keep  God's  holy  will  and 
commandments.  On  the  divine  side  the 
promise  is  to  receive  the  person  making  this 
agreement,  "to  release  him  from  sin,  to 
sanctify  him  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  give 
him  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  everlast- 
ing life." 

Ill 

The  inward  grace  in  baptism  is  denned 
by  the  words  remission,  regeneration  and 
initiation. 

1.  Baptism,  as  a  "death  unto  sin,"  is  the 
sacrament  of  Remission.  Thus  water  is 
used  as  a  natural  symbol  of  spiritual 
cleansing.  The  person  to  be  baptized  de- 
clares his  intention  to  put  away  evil  out  of 
his  life,  and  is  washed  with  water  in  token 
of  that  renunciation.  His  sins  for  which 
he  is  truly  penitent  are  forgiven,  in  ac- 
cordance with  many  words  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture (Acts  2:38,  Romans  6:1-11). 

2.  Baptism,  as  a  "new  birth  unto  right- 

46 


BAPTISM 


eousness,"  is  the  sacrament  of  Regeneration. 
The  word  is  defined  in  the  baptismal  serv- 
ice in  the  phrase,  "regenerate  and  grafted 
into  the  body  of  Christ's  Church."  The 
Saxon  phrase  explains  the  Latin  word. 
Thus  St.  Paul  taught  that  Christ  is  the 
Second  Adam  from  whom  we  derive  spirit- 
ual life  as  from  the  first  Adam  we  derive 
physical  life.  He  illustrated  this  by  the 
simile  of  grafting  (Romans  11:17).  The 
new  branch  grafted-in  draws  nourishment 
from  the  tree. 

St.  Paul  used  also  the  simile  of  adoption 
(Romans  8:15).  Out  of  the  "world"  — 
taking  the  word  in  the  bad  sense  in  which 
it  is  used  in  the  Bible  —  out  of  a  life  in 
which  passion  is  unrestrained  by  religion, 
and  God  is  forgotten,  out  of  the  region  of 
merely  animal  instincts  and  motives,  he 
who  is  baptized  is  adopted  into  the  family 
of  religion,  into  a  life  of  spiritual  privileges, 
into  conditions  where  he  will  be  taught  the 
truth  and  be  surrounded  by  those  who  are 
trying  to  do  what  is  right. 

These  similes  define  regeneration  not  as 
a  "change  of  heart,"  but  as  a  change  of 
circumstances.  The  grafting  of  a  branch 
into  a  tree  and  the  adoption  of  a  child  into 


47 


BAPTISM 


a  family  do  not  effect  any  immediate 
change.  They  are  only  potential.  They 
make  great  changes  possible,  but  these  de- 
pend on  the  graft  and  on  the  child.  The 
graft  may  fail  to  lay  hold  on  the  new  life 
of  the  tree,  and  thus  may  wither.  The 
child  may  fail  to  avail  himself  of  the  new 
life  of  the  family,  and  may  go  wrong. 
Nevertheless,  the  new  opportunity  is  so 
great  that  the  act  which  makes  it  possible 
may  fitly  be  described  as  a  new  birth.  In 
baptism,  they  who  thus  enter  into  new 
spiritual  privileges,  may  properly  be  said 
to  be  regenerate:  they  are  born  again. 

3.  As  the  Sacrament  of  Remission  and 
of  Regeneration,  Baptism  is  the  Sacrament 
of  Initiation.  Here  the  two  previous  def- 
initions meet.  He  who  is  baptized  is 
thereby  initiated  into  the  divine  society  of 
the  Church.  This  is  what  baptism  essen- 
tially is,  and  is  for.  Water  is  poured  upon 
the  head,  and  ancient  and  sacred  words  are 
spoken,  and  this  is  what  happens :  the  bap- 
tized person  is  made  a  member  of  the 
Christian  Church. 

Thus  we  say  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Catechism  that  in  baptism  we  were  each 
made  "a  member  of  Christ,  the  child  of 
48 


BAPTISM 


God,  and  an  inheritor  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  In  the  revision  of  the  English 
Prayer  Book  which  was  undertaken  in  1785 
by  our  First  General  Convention,  the  sec- 
ond question  in  the  Catechism,  "Who  gave 
you  this  name?  "  was  answered,  "  I  received 
it  in  baptism,  whereby  I  was  made  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Christian  Church."  This  was 
considered  an  equivalent  of  the  present 
answer,  and  easier  to  understand.  It  is 
what  the  answer  means.  To  be  made  a 
member  of  Christ,  the  child  of  God  and  an 
inheritor  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  to  be 
admitted  to  the  fellowship  of  the  Church. 
The  three  clauses  are  different  statements 
of  the  same  thing. 

The  Church  is  described  in  the  New 
Testament  under  three  names.  It  is  the 
body  of  Christ  (Ephesians  1:23),  it  is  the 
household  of  God  (Ephesians  2:19),  and 
it  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven  (Matthew  13). 

When  we  were  baptized  we  were  made 
members  of  Christ.  It  signifies  the  service 
of  God.  A  member  of  a  body  is  a  part  of 
the  body,  as  a  hand  or  an  eye;  and  the 
purpose  of  the  members  of  the  body  is  to 
serve.  We  were  made  members  of  Christ 
that  we  might  serve  Him:  our  hands  are 


49 


BAPTISM 


to  do  His  work,  our  feet  are  to  go  upon  His 
errands,  our  lips  are  to  speak  in  His  spirit. 

When  we  were  baptized  we  were  made 
the  children  of  God.  It  signifies  the  love 
of  God.  Sometimes  in  the  Bible  our  Lord 
is  called  the  only  Son  of  God,  while  in  other 
places  we  are  all  called  children  of  God. 
The  word  is  used  with  different  meanings. 
So  it  is  here.  We  are  all  God's  children  by 
being  born  into  His  family,  the  race;  we 
are  especially  God's  children  by  being  bora 
again  into  His  spiritual  family,  the  Church. 
Baptism  is  here  the  symbol  of  the  love  of 
God,  of  His  fatherly  care  for  us  and  His 
desire  that  we  should  love  Him  in  return. 

When  we  were  baptized  we  were  made 
inheritors  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  It 
signifies  the  blessing  of  God.  It  means 
God's  blessing  now  and  here:  for  being  by 
baptism  brought  into  membership  in  the 
Church  we  have  the  manifold  help  and 
benediction  which  belong  to  that  privilege. 
And  it  means  God's  blessing  hereafter:  for 
continuing  in  the  love  and  service  of  God 
we  will  enter  into  that  ideal  kingdom  for 
which  all  that  is  best  in  our  present  life 
prepares  us. 

AH  this  is  but  a  drawing  out  of  the  fact 

5o 


BAPTISM 


of  church  membership  into  its  natural 
inferences  and  applications. 

IV 

i.  The  recipients  of  baptism  seem  orig- 
inally to  have  been  persons  of  mature  life. 
The  command,  "  Go,  teach  all  nations,  and 
baptize  them,"  and  the  two  conditions, 
"Repent  and  be  baptized"  and  "He  that 
believe th  and  is  baptized,"  indicate  adults. 
At  the  same  time,  the  admission  of  children 
into  the  Jewish  Church  might  be  taken  by 
the  Christians  as  a  precedent  for  their  own 
use.  The  baptizing  of  households  by  the 
apostles  seems  to  suggest  the  inclusion  of 
children.  A  few  statements  in  very  early 
Christian  writings  (conveniently  accessible 
in  the  Schaff-Herzog,  "  Religious  Ency- 
clopedia," Vol.  I,  page  451)  indicate  that 
children  were  baptized.  "The  rite  of  in- 
fant baptism  can  be  traced  in  Irenaeus, 
was  contested  by  Tertullian,  and  was  for 
Origen  an  apostolic  usage."  Irenaeus  died 
about  the  year  178,  Tertullian  in  222, 
Origen  in  254.  Cyprian  (died  258)  said 
that  infants  ought  to  be  baptized.  The 
fact,  however,  that  various  eminent  Chris- 
tians of  the  fourth  century  were  not  bap- 

5i 


BAPTISM 


tized  in  infancy  suggests  that  adult  bap- 
tism was  the  common  rule.  Baptism  was 
delayed  until  it  was  possible  to  fulfil  the 
conditions  of  repentance  and  faith. 

This  delay  was  confirmed  in  the  case  of 
many  in  the  early  church  by  an  under- 
standing of  its  meaning  as  a  Sacrament  of 
Remission.  It  was  believed  that  the 
baptismal  water  literally  washed  sins 
away.  Let  us  wait,  then,  said  many  pru- 
dent Christians,  till  we  have  outlived  the 
days  of  strong  temptation,  and  have  sinned 
most  of  our  sins;  then  we  may  wash  them 
all  away  together.  Sometimes  they  waited 
till  they  were  on  their  deathbeds. 

2.  The  postponement  of  baptism  ceased 
to  be  a  custom  in  the  church  by  reason  of 
an  understanding  of  its  meaning  as  a 
Sacrament  of  Regeneration.  St.  Augustine 
taught  that  every  infant  is  born  under  the 
curse  of  original  sin,  and  cannot,  without 
the  new  birth  of  baptism,  enter  into  fulness 
of  life.  This  doctrine  which  populated 
hell  with  infants  "not  a  span  long,"  was 
easily  applied  by  a  childless  clergy  to 
other  people's  children.  It  is  an  example 
of  what  may  be  believed  when  the  head 
of  the  theologian  takes  no  suggestion  from 

52 


BAPTISM 


his  heart.  It  frightened  people  into  the 
baptizing  of  their  infant  children. 

But  the  baptizing  of  children,  though 
delayed  by  one  superstition  and  hastened 
by  another,  is  a  true  deduction  from  the 
meaning  of  the  sacrament.  The  Christian 
father  was  initiated  into  the  Christian 
Society,  and  the  Christian  mother  was 
initiated  with  him,  and  they  were  not 
willing  to  leave  the  little  boys  and  girls 
outside;  that  is  the  heart  of  it.  Some 
theologians  said  this,  and  other  theologians 
said  that.  Tertullian  said,  You  must  not 
have  your  children  baptized  lest  they  fall 
into  the  awful  condemnation  of  post- 
baptismal  sin.  He  had  a  text  for  it 
(Hebrews  10:29).  Augustine  said,  You 
must  have  your  children  baptized  lest 
they  fall  into  everlasting  misery.  He  too 
had  texts  for  it.  But  the  parents  brought 
their  children,  in  happy  ignorance  of  the 
teachings  of  these  relentless  logicians,  being 
moved  thereto  by  natural  human  affection. 
It  is  the  revelation  of  the  will  of  God  not 
in  a  book,  nor  in  a  doctrine,  but  in  the 
heart,  which  maintains  the  baptism  of 
infants  in  the  life  of  the  Church.  And  the 
custom  is  in  accordance  with  His  spirit 

53 


BAPTISM 


who  said,  "Suffer  the  little  children  to 
come  to  me." 

As  for  the  scriptural  requirements  of 
repentance  and  faith,  these  were  met  in 
the  baptism  of  infants  by  the  promises  of 
Christian  friends  to  take  care  that  the 
children  should  be  brought  to  hear  sermons, 
that  they  should  learn  the  Creed,  the 
Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, and  in  general  that  they  should 
be  virtuously  brought  up  to  lead  a  godly 
and  a  Christian  life.  On  arriving  at  years 
of  discretion  the  children  were  to  be 
brought  to  the  bishop  to  be  confirmed  by 
him.  This  provision  of  promisers,  or 
sponsors,  which  was  universal  till  the  time 
of  the  Reformation,  and  is  still  general 
among  Christians,  proceeds  upon  the  prin- 
ciple of  Christian  nurture.  The  idea  is  that 
the  spiritual  life,  without  waiting  for  an 
experience  of  conversion,  should  begin  in 
the  earliest  years  of  childhood.  The  child 
increases  in  wisdom  and  stature,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  gradually  and  naturally, 
in  the  knowledge  and  obedience  and  love 
of  God. 

Baptism,  whoever  receives  it,  young  or 
old,  is  the  same  sacrament,  with  the  same 


54 


BAPTISM 


meaning  and  the  same  blessing.  There  is 
nothing  magical  about  it.  There  is  nothing 
more  mysterious  than  there  is  in  any  other 
spiritual  opportunity  of  our  daily  life.  It 
is  the  benediction  with  which  one  is  re- 
ceived into  the  membership  of  the  Chris- 
tian society  on  earth.  It  is  the  plain  door 
which  opens,  at  the  touch  of  the  humblest 
hand,  into  the  Christian  Church. 


55 


CONFIRMATION 


CONFIRMATION 


I.   The  Completion  of  Baptism 

1.  The  third  part  of  primitive  baptism, 

plus  the  first  part 

2.  Thus  required 

II.   The  Confession  of  Christ:  Question 
and  Answer 

1.  For  His  sake 

2.  For  our  neighbor's  sake 

3.  For  our  own  sake:  a  "decided  ini- 

tiative" 

III.   The  Consecration  of  the  Life:  Laying 
on  of  Hands 

1.  The  prayer  for  the  Holy  Ghost 

2.  The  ordination  of  the  laity 

IV.   The  Way  of  Admission  to  the  Holy 
Communion 

1.  The  prohibitory  rubric,  the  safeguard 

of  Confirmation 

2.  The  privilege  of  the  sacrament,  the 

chief  blessing 


59 


IV 


CONFIRMATION 

The  meaning  of  Confirmation  is  con- 
tained in  four  words:  completion,  con- 
fession, consecration,  communion. 

I 

Confirmation  is  the  completion  of  bap- 
tism. In  several  places  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment (Acts  8:14-17,  Acts  19:1-6,  Hebrews 
6:2)  baptism  is  immediately  followed  by  a 
laying  on  of  hands. 

1.  The  baptismal  service  was  originally 
in  three  parts:  a  confession  of  Christ,  an 
immersion  or  affusion,  and  a  laying  on  of 
hands.  "In  the  next  place,"  says  Ter- 
tullian,  in  the  end  of  the  second  century, 
describing  the  act  of  baptism,  "the  hand 
is  laid  upon  us  invoking  and  inviting  the 
Holy  Spirit  through  benediction"  (Ayer: 
"  Source  Book  for  Ancient  Church  His- 
tory," p.  233). 

When  it  became  the  custom  to  baptize 
60 


CONFIRMATION 


infants  rather  than  adults,  the  confession 
of  Christ,  with  the  accompanying  renuncia- 
tion of  the  devil,  was  omitted. 

When  the  church  grew  so  large  that  the 
bishop  —  originally  the  minister  of  bap- 
tism —  could  not  conveniently  be  present 
at  all  baptisms,  it  was  arranged  that  the 
presbyter  should  baptize,  but  a  share  of 
the  service  was  still  kept  for  the  bishop: 
the  benediction  at  the  end  was  postponed 
until  he  came.  Then  when  he  arrived,  on 
the  occasion  of  his  visitation,  those  who 
had  been  baptized  in  his  absence  were 
gathered  together,  and  he  blessed  them, 
laying  on  his  hands.  It  was  like  the  order 
of  events  in  the  Acts,  when  Philip  baptized 
in  Samaria,  and  the  apostles  Peter  and 
John  came  down  and  laid  their  hands  upon 
the  new  disciples. 

This  concluding  benediction  was  made 
a  service  by  itself,  and  became  what  we 
call  Confirmation.  Thus  it  stood  till  the 
end  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Then  at  the 
Reformation  the  Church  of  England  pre- 
fixed to  it  a  recitation  of  the  Catechism, 
for  which,  in  1662,  the  single  inclusive 
question  of  the  bishop  was  substituted. 
Thus  Confirmation,  the  benediction  of  the 

61 


CONFIRMATION 


ancient  baptismal  service,  came  to  be  also 
the  renunciation  of  evil  and  confession  of 
Christ  with  which  that  service  anciently 
began.  Accordingly,  in  the  Prayer  Book, 
the  service  of  baptism  has  no  benediction 
at  the  end,  and  the  confirmation  service, 
the  proper  benediction,  begins  with  a  con- 
fession of  Christ. 

2.  It  is  because  of  this  ancient,  and  even 
scriptural,  character  of  confirmation  that 
we  require  it  in  the  Episcopal  Church. 
Every  Christian  society  which  admits  to 
its  membership  those  who  enter  in  infancy 
by  baptism  has  a  further  service  by  which 
it  admits  them  to  the  Holy  Communion. 
But  this  is  not  only  our  prescribed  manner 
of  approach  to  that  sacrament;  it  has  such 
sanctions  in  the  past  that  we  say  to  those 
who  wish  to  be  enrolled  among  us  but  who 
have  not  been  confirmed,  "Here  is  an 
experience  into  which  you  have  not  entered. 
We  cast  no  doubt  upon  your  membership 
in  the  Church:  that  was  effected  by  your 
baptism.  But  here  is  a  service  whereby, 
according  to  immemorial  tradition,  the 
rite  of  baptism  is  completed:  not  the  sacra- 
ment of  baptism,  —  that  requires  only  the 
water  and  the  words,  —  but  the  ancient 
62 


CONFIRMATION 


rite.  We  are  not  contented  with  a  letter 
of  transfer  only.  We  ask  you  to  come  to 
receive  the  benediction  of  the  bishop,  as 
your  formal  welcome  and  admission  to  our 
branch  of  the  church." 

The  head  of  our  religious  organization 
is  the  bishop.  He  is  the  president  of  our 
society.  Nobody  may  be  received  into 
full  membership  among  us  without  being 
formally  presented  to  the  bishop  and 
received  by  him. 

II 

Confirmation  is  also  a  confession  of 
Christ.  The  first  part  of  the  service  con- 
sists of  the  bishop's  question:  Do  ye  here, 
in  the  presence  of  God  and  of  this  congrega- 
tion, renew  the  solemn  promise  and  vow 
that  ye  made,  or  that  was  made  in  your 
name,  at  your  baptism ;  ratifying  and  con- 
firming the  same;  and  acknowledging  your- 
selves bound  to  believe  and  to  do  all  those 
things  which  ye  then  undertook,  or  your 
sponsors  then  undertook  for  you?"  To 
this  the  answer  is,  "I  do." 

The  answering  of  this  question  presents 
no  alternative  between  taking  responsibil- 
ity and  leaving  it.    There  is  indeed  a 

63 


CONFIRMATION 


difference  between  the  life  which  is  ex- 
pected of  a  communicant  of  the  church 
and  the  life  which  is  commonly  expected 
of  one  who  confesses  no  allegiance  to  reli- 
gion. It  is  quite  unlikely,  however,  that 
any  such  difference  is  recognized  by  God. 
In  our  Lord's  parable  of  the  Last  Judgment 
no  distinctions  are  made  between  church 
members  and  others,  even  between  Chris- 
tians and  pagans;  the  only  question  is, 
What  sort  of  person  are  you,  by  reason  of 
the  use  which  you  made  of  your  religious 
opportunities?  It  will  be  of  no  avail  to 
say,  "O,  but  I  did  not  use  my  religious 
opportunities;  I  never  joined  the  church, 
nor  partook  of  its  sacraments."  That  will 
only  make  the  situation  worse.  You  might 
have  had  all  this  help,  if  you  would.  You 
cannot  excuse  yourself  by  saying  that  you 
did  not  use  it.  It  is  like  an  examination, 
wherein  nobody  may  increase  his  marks  by 
affirming  that  he  absented  himself  from 
the  classroom.  The  confirmation  question 
is  concerned  with  that  which  all  are 
bound,  —  whether  they  acknowledge  it  or 
not,  —  to  believe  and  to  obey:  to  believe 
the  truth  of  God,  to  obey  the  will  of  God. 
i.  The  public  acknowledgment  of  this 

64 


CONFIRMATION 


obligation  is  made  in  the  first  place  for  His 
sake  whom  we  thus  confess  before  men. 
He  is  not  satisfied  with  concealed  alle- 
giance. He  declared  this  plainly  in  such 
words  as  are  recorded  in  Matthew  10:32, 33. 

2.  It  is  made  in  the  second  place  for  the 
sake  of  our  neighbor  who  needs  our  ex- 
ample and  waits  to  see  what  we  will  do. 
One  may  say,  "I  can  get  along  without 
the  church:  I  am  a  philosopher  and  have 
my  books,  or  I  am  a  mystic  and  have  my 
communion  with  God  in  my  own  soul." 
But  everybody  affects  somebody  else. 
The  mystics  and  philosophers  are  few; 
the  plain  people,  tempted  and  troubled, 
needing  the  church,  are  many.  They  are 
seriously  hindered  by  those  who  maintain 
by  their  example  that  the  church  is  not 
worth  while.  They  are  served  by  every 
strong  man  who  declares  that  he  himself 
needs  increase  of  strength,  and  here  in  the 
church  finds  it. 

3.  The  confession  of  Christ  is  made,  in 
the  third  place,  for  our  own  sake.  It  has 
what  is  called  in  psychology  the  value  of 
a  "decided  initiative."  Students  of  hu- 
man nature  tell  us,  —  and,  indeed,  we  know 
by  our  own  experience,  —  that  if  we  hon- 

65 


CONFIRMATION 

estly  desire  to  keep  a  good  resolution  we 
may  assist  ourselves  greatly  by  beginning 
strong.  Especially,  we  will  do  well  to 
enter  into  the  practice  of  the  resolution 
in  some  pronounced  and  public  way.  Thus 
is  habit  formed  and  strengthened.  Thus 
we  bring  to  our  aid  the  observation  of 
our  neighbors.  We  surround  ourselves 
with  an  "atmosphere  of  expectation."  We 
know  that  we  may  break  a  resolve  which 
we  have  silently  made  in  our  own  souls, 
and  nobody  will  be  the  wiser.  But  when 
we  are  tempted  to  do  that  which  is  out  of 
keeping  with  our  public  declaration,  then 
we  know  that  if  we  fail  we  will  lose  the 
respect  of  our  neighbors.  They  will  look 
curiously  at  us  out  of  their  open  eyes. 
In  general  it  is  easy  to  behave  as  those 
who  are  about  us  expect  us  to  behave. 
A  course  of  life  openly  adopted  sets  the 
note  of  expectation.  Thus  a  public  con- 
fession of  Christ,  an  open  declaration 
that  we  are  on  His  side,  and  that  we  in- 
tend by  His  help  to  do  His  will,  assists 
us  from  that  moment.  The  indefinite 
people  are  in  perpetual  peril.  They  in- 
tend in  a  vague  way  to  be  good,  but  they 
are  so  far  from  clear  about  it  that  they  are 
66 


CONFIRMATION 


naturally  tempted  to  be  bad.  Temptation 
comes  because  they  seem  to  invite  it. 
The  people  who  have  decided  convictions 
and  are  perfectly  frank  about  them,  who 
let  their  neighbors  know  precisely  where 
they  stand,  are  shielded  from  much  tempta- 
tion by  that  fact.  They  are  not  only 
definitely  but  aggressively  good,  trying 
not  only  to  be  good  but  to  do  good.  They 
are  thereby  as  immune  from  many  solici- 
tations to  evil  as  a  policeman  is  immune 
from  the  proposal  of  a  burglar  to  help 
him  rob  a  safe.  The  value  of  confirma- 
tion, in  this  aspect  of  it,  is  in  the  position 
of  natural  security  which  it  offers.  In  a 
world  in  which  we  all  find  it  hard  to  be 
good,  here  is  a  help. 

Ill 

Confirmation  is  a  consecration  of  one's 
self  to  the  service  of  Christ.  The  second 
part  of  the  service  consists  of  the  bishop's 
benediction.  First  he  prays  in  general 
for  all  who  have  come  to  be  confirmed. 
They  have  already  been  baptized:  God 
has  vouchsafed  to  "regenerate  them  by 
water  and  the  Holy  Ghost.''  May  they 
now  be  blessed  with  new  spiritual  strength: 

67 


CONFIRMATION 


"Strengthen  them,  we  beseech  thee,  O 
Lord,  with  the  Holy  Ghost  the  Comforter, 
and  daily  increase  in  them  thy  manifold 
gifts  of  grace."  It  is  like  the  petition  of 
St.  Peter  and  St.  John,  "  who,  when  they 
were  come  down,  prayed  for  them  that 
they  might  receive  the  Holy  Ghost." 

i.  One  of  the  gifts  given  in  answer  to 
the  prayer  of  the  apostles  was  a  speaking 
with  tongues.  At  Ephesus,  for  example, 
when  St.  Paul  laid  his  hands  on  those  whom 
he  had  just  baptized,  "they  spake  with 
tongues  and  prophesied."  This  has  long 
passed  out  of  ordinary  experience,  though 
it  has  occasionally  recurred  under  peculiar 
psychical  conditions.  It  seems  to  have 
been  a  crying-out  to  express  a  joy  or  an 
excitement  for  which  common,  articulate 
speech  was  inadequate.  The  gifts  for 
which  the  bishop  prays  to-day  are  very 
different:  wisdom,  understanding,  counsel, 
ghostly  (  =  spiritual)  strength,  knowledge 
and  true  godliness;  to  which  is  added 
holy  fear,  i.  e.,  the  spirit  of  reverence,  the 
consciousness  of  the  divine  presence.  The 
words  are  taken  from  the  beginning  of 
the  eleventh  chapter  of  Isaiah,  and  are  a 
description  of  an  ideal  king.  The  bishop 
68 


CONFIRMATION 


prays  that  these  disciples  may  have  the 
qualities  of  leadership  among  their  fellows, 
especially  a  right  judgment  to  know  what 
to  do,  and  energy  to  do  it,  and  that  they 
may  undertake  all  their  good  works  in 
true  piety  and  the  fear  of  God.  They 
are  to  be  active  and  useful  persons,  their 
lives  filled  with  social  service,  in  the  spirit 
of  religion. 

2.  Then  prayer  is  made  for  each  of  them 
in  particular,  the  bishop  laying  his  hands, 
after  the  manner  of  the  apostles,  upon 
the  head  of  each,  partly  for  indication, 
showing  by  his  gesture  for  whom  he  prays; 
and  partly  for  benediction,  like  the  setting- 
apart  of  a  knight  in  the  days  of  chivalry. 
It  is  a  kind  of  ordination  of  the  laity, 
blessing  their  consecration  of  themselves 
to  the  active  service  of  Christ.  The  bishop 
prays  for  the  grace  of  God  that  they  may 
be  enabled  to  serve  aright,  with  persever- 
ance. "Defend,  O  Lord,  this  thy  child 
with  thy  heavenly  grace;  that  he  may 
continue  thine  forever;  and  daily  increase 
in  thy  Holy  Spirit  more  and  more,  until 
he  come  unto  thy  everlasting  kingdom." 


69 


CONFIRMATION 


IV 

Confirmation  is  a  rite  of  admission  to 
the  Holy  Communion.  A  rubric  at  the 
end  of  the  service  directs  that  "the  minis- 
ter shall  not  omit  earnestly  to  move  the 
persons  confirmed  to  come,  without  delay, 
to  the  Lord's  Supper."  And  another 
rubric  says,  "There  shall  none  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  Holy  Communion,  until 
such  time  as  he  be  confirmed,  or  be  ready 
and  desirous  to  be  confirmed." 

i.  The  original  purpose  of  this  prohibi- 
tion was  to  prevent  the  disuse  of  Confir- 
mation. It  was  thus  set  forth  in  1281 
by  Archbishop  Peckham  of  Canterbury. 
"Many,"  he  said,  "neglect  the  sacrament 
of  confirmation  for  want  of  watchful  ad- 
visers; so  that  there  are  many,  innumer- 
able many,  who  want  the  grace  of  con- 
firmation, though  grown  old  in  evil  days. 
To  cure  this  damnable  neglect,  we  ordain 
that  none  be  admitted  to  the  sacrament  of 
the  Lord's  Body  and  Blood  that  is  not 
confirmed,  except  at  the  point  of  death, 
unless  he  have  a  reasonable  impediment." 

The  prohibition  is  not  of  the  nature  of 
an  excommunication.  The  lack  of  con- 
70 


CONFIRMATION 

firmation  is  not  essentially  a  hindrance 
to  the  right  receiving  of  the  Holy  Com- 
munion. There  are  such  hindrances,  but 
they  are  stated  in  the  Prayer  Book  in 
their  proper  place,  in  the  rubrics  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Communion  Service. 
Some  kind  of  formal  admission  to  that 
sacrament  is  necessary  in  order  that  those 
who  come  may  have  sufficient  maturity  of 
mind  and  earnestness  of  purpose.  This 
must  be  secured  by  some  sort  of  prohibi- 
tion. Such  a  requirement  is  made  in 
every  Christian  society.  Our  rite  of  con- 
firmation differs  from  similar  rites  among 
our  neighbors  in  its  historical  and  scrip- 
tural sanction,  but  not  in  its  practical 
efficiency.  They  provide  in  their  own 
way  for  devout  and  instructed  approach 
to  the  Lord's  Table.  Our  rubric  governs 
our  own  practice,  and  those  who  would  be 
enrolled  on  our  communicant  lists  must 
conform  to  it.  As  regards  others  who  may 
desire  upon  occasion  to  come  to  our  altar, 
the  rubric  may  be  interpreted  either  liber- 
ally or  strictly.  It  is  commonly  inter- 
preted liberally,  in  accordance  with  Chris- 
tian hospitality.  It  is  taken  to  apply  to 
our  own  people,  not  to  those  who  have  a 

7i 


CONFIRMATION 


different  discipline.*  Such  a  construction 
of  the  rubric  was  officially  given  by  Arch- 
bishop Tait  of  Canterbury,  in  1870,  when 
Dean  Stanley  invited  to  the  Holy  Com- 
munion in  Westminster  Abbey  the  whole 
company  of  the  revisers  of  the  translation 
of  the  New  Testament,  representing  vari- 
ous denominations. 

2.  The  highest  values  of  Confirmation 
are  derived  from  the  privileges  into  which 
it  gives  admission.  One  may  say,  "I  have 
already  the  benefit  of  the  Church;  I  attend 
its  sendees,  and  am  entitled  to  its  minis- 
trations." But  it  is  to  be  said  in  answer 
that  an  obvious  difference  between  those 
who  have  been  confirmed  and  those  who 
have  not  been  confirmed  appears  when 
the  moment  comes  for  the  service  of  the 
Holy  Communion:  those  who  have  been 
confirmed  remain.  They  remain  for  the 
spiritual  strength  which  is  imparted  in 
that  sacrament.  The  distinction  between 
the  two  groups  is  not  that  those  who  re- 

*See  for  example,  the  usage  of  Bp.  Hobart,  Bp.  de 
Lancey,  and  Bp.  Whipple  in  Lights  and  Shadows  of  a  Long 
Episcopate,  p.  10;  and  of  Bp.  Tuttle,  dow  (1914)  Presid- 
ing Bishop,  in  his  Reminiscences  of  a  Missionary  Bishop, 
p.  204;  and  the  counsel  of  Bp.  Lawrence  in  his  Convention 
Address  (1913). 

72 


CONFIRMATION 


main  say,  "We  are  the  good  and  religious 
part  of  the  congregation,"  while  those  who 
go  out  say,  "We  make  no  profession  of 
particular  goodness."  All  alike  desire  to 
be  good:  that  is  taken  for  granted.  But 
those  who  stay  to  the  Communion  say, 
"In  order  to  be  right  and  to  do  right  we 
need  help,  and  we  know  that  help  is  to  be 
had  here."  In  a  world  in  which  we  all 
meet  with  trial  and  trouble,  confirmation 
admits  us  to  a  source  of  refreshment  and 
strength.  Every  devout  communicant 
knows  that  by  experience.  We  come  to 
the  Lord's  Supper  in  our  weakness,  or 
sorrow,  or  perplexity,  beset  by  tempta- 
tion, and  we  go  away  uplifted. 

Herein  is  the  answer  to  some  who  say, 
"I  am  not  good  enough  to  be  confirmed." 
It  may  be  a  sufficient  answer.  It  may 
mean  honest  indifference  to  religion;  or 
it  may  mean  a  silent  refusal  to  give  up 
some  course  of  life  which  is  known  to  be 
wrong.  Under  such  conditions,  one  ought 
not  to  be  confirmed.  But  sometimes  it 
means  a  confusion  of  aspiration  with  per- 
fection. People  may  have  a  high  ideal  of 
what  it  means  to  be  a  Christian,  and  may 
feel  that  they  must  wait  till  they  have 

73 


CONFIRMATION 


come  nearer  to  it:  then  they  will  be  con- 
firmed. This  is  like  saying,  "I  will  wait 
till  I  feel  much  better,  then  I  will  make 
use  of  medicine."  Medicine  is  for  those 
who  need  aid  against  disease;  the  Holy 
Communion  is  for  those  who  need  aid 
against  sin,  they  ought  to  be  confirmed 
in  order  to  be  admitted  to  the  ministra- 
tions of  this  sacramental  grace.  The  only 
essential  preliminary  is  aspiration,  the 
earnest  desire  to  live,  by  God's  help,  a 
better  life. 


74 


RENUNCIATION 


RENUNCIATION 


I.   The  Essential  Importance  of  Character 
II.   The  Meaning  of  Renunciation 
The  keeping  of  Lent 
III.   The  Renunciation  of  the  Devil:  Sins  of 
the  Spirit 
Committed  in  spirit 
Beginning  in  spirit 

IV.  The  Renunciation  of  the  World:  Sins 

of  Society 

The  Christian  and  the  world 

The  Christian  attitude  towards  amuse- 
ment 

V.  The  Renunciation  of  the  Flesh:  Sins  of 

the  Body 
Major  sins:  impurity,  intemperance 
Minor  sins:  indolence 


77 


V 


RENUNCIATION 
I 

Nothing  in  religion  is  so  important  as 
character.  The  essential  thing  is  to  be 
good.  The  Creed  is  of  great  value,  the 
Church  is  of  great  value,  but  their  value 
is  in  the  assistance  which  they  give  to  the 
living  of  a  right  life.  Unless  our  belief  in 
the  Creed  ministers  to  our  conduct  in  ac- 
cordance with  it,  that  formula  is  no  better 
than  any  other  true  statement  of  philos- 
ophy. Unless  our  membership  in  the 
Church  bears  fruit  in  righteousness,  that 
organization  is  no  better  than  any  other 
excellent  society. 

In  the  Old  Testament  the  emphasis  is 
on  character.  The  Hebrew  idea  of  God 
differs  in  many  respects  from  the  ideas  of 
other  nations,  but  chiefly  in  the  belief  that 
He  is  a  righteous  God,  who  is  best  served 
by  putting  away  whatever  is  evil  and  doing 
whatever  is  required  by  His  holy  command- 

78 


RENUNCIATION 


merits.  In  the  Temple,  the  worshipper 
passed  through  a  series  of  sanctuaries  of 
increasing  sacredness  until  he  came  to  the 
Most  Holy  Place;  and  in  this  Holy  of 
Holies,  as  the  symbol  and  assurance  of  the 
divine  presence,  were  the  tables  of  stone 
on  which  were  inscribed  the  chief  require- 
ments of  the  moral  law. 

In  the  New  Testament  the  emphasis  is 
even  more  strongly  placed  on  character. 
Our  Lord,  by  precept  and  by  example,  con- 
tinually insisted  upon  it.  He  denned  it  as 
consisting  not  only  of  words  and  deeds  but 
of  the  most  secret  thoughts  of  the  heart. 
St.  Paul  addressed  the  Christians  not  as 
"orthodox,"  i.  e.,  as  distinguished  by  their 
acceptance  of  a  creed;  and  not  as  "cath- 
olic," i.  e.,  as  distinguished  by  their  al- 
legiance to  a  church.  These  adjectives 
came  long  after.  He  called  them  "saints," 
i.  e.,  holy  people,  good  people.  His  letters 
show  by  the  counsels  and  warnings  which 
they  contain  that  the  Christians  were  very 
imperfect  saints;  but  they  were  trying  to 
do  right.  They  were  endeavoring  to  real- 
ize an  ideal  of  character. 

Among  the  baptismal  promises  to  which 
the  bishop  refers  at  the  beginning  of  the 

79 


RENUNCIATION 


confirmation  service,  the  first  and  third 
are  concerned  with  character:  "First,  that 
I  should  renounce  the  devil  and  all  his 
works,  the  pomps  and  vanity  of  this  wicked 
world,  and  all  the  sinful  lusts  of  the  flesh. 
Thirdly,  that  I  should  keep  God's  holy  will 
and  commandments,  and  walk  in  the  same 
all  the  days  of  my  life."  One  of  these  is  a 
promise  of  Renunciation,  the  other  is  a 
promise  of  Obedience. 

II 

Renunciation  means  giving  up.  In  the 
ancient  ritual  of  baptism  the  new  disciple 
turning  his  face  to  the  east  to  make  his 
confession  of  Christ,  turned  his  back  to  the 
west  to  renounce  the  devil,  —  the  west,  as 
the  place  where  the  sun  descends  into 
darkness,  being  at  that  time  considered 
the  special  residence  of  the  infernal 
powers. 

Renunciation,  which  always  implies,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  the  giving  up  of  that 
which  we  know  to  be  bad,  also  implies 
sometimes  the  giving  up  of  the  good.  The 
right  conduct  of  life  is  only  in  part  a  rejec- 
tion of  that  which  is  plainly  and  definitely 
evil;  it  is  still  more  a  choice,  among  supe- 
80 


RENUNCIATION 


rior  and  inferior  goods,  of  that  which  is 
better.  This  may  be  for  the  sake  of  disci- 
pline, giving  us  practice  in  the  difficult  art 
of  saying  "no,"  exercising  us  in  matters 
which  are  not  of  essential  importance  that 
we  may  be  ready  to  choose  aright  when 
we  are  in  the  midst  of  serious  temptation. 
Or  it  may  be  for  the  sake  of  opportunity, 
to  get  more  time  and  have  more  strength 
for  that  which  is  better;  as  every  earnest 
person  gives  up  some  measure  of  recreation 
and  of  rest  in  order  to  devote  himself  to  the 
serious  business  of  his  life. 

This  is  a  great  part  of  the  meaning  of 
Lent.  We  abstain  at  such  a  time  from  cer- 
tain articles  of  innocent  food  that  we  may 
have  the  benefit  of  discipline,  denying  our- 
selves that  which  is  good  that  we  may 
strengthen  the  habit  of  denying  ourselves 
that  which  is  bad.  And  we  abstain  from 
certain  innocent  amusements,  that  we  may 
have  opportunity  for  more  frequent  at- 
tendance at  church,  and  for  more  diligent 
reading  of  improving  books.  The  act  is 
negative,  but  the  purpose  is  positive.  The 
whole  value  of  the  act  is  in  its  relation  to 
the  positive  purpose.  Thus  days  of  fasting 
are  defined  in  the  Prayer  Book  as  those 

81 


RENUNCIATION 


"on  which  the  church  requires  such  a 
measure  of  abstinence  as  is  more  especially 
suited  to  extraordinary  acts  and  exercises 
of  devotion." 

Ill 

The  renunciation  of  the  devil  is  directed 
against  the  sins  of  the  spirit. 

There  are  sins  which  are  committed  in 
spirit,  without  necessarily  making  them- 
selves either  visible  or  audible.  They  are 
consistent  with  the  utmost  respectability. 
They  who  commit  such  sins  may  have  an 
appearance  of  great  goodness.  The  Phar- 
isees, for  example,  who  were  guilty  of  these 
offences,  were  generally  considered  the  most 
excellent  persons  in  the  community.  But 
our  Lord  addressed  them  in  terms  of  the 
strongest  condemnation.  They  themselves 
honestly  believed  that  they  were  pleasing 
to  God.  One  of  them,  in  his  prayers, 
thanked  God  that  he  was  so  much  better 
than  his  neighbors.  But  all  the  time  they 
were  under  the  divine  displeasure.  They 
were  so  certain  of  their  goodness,  and  so 
unconscious  of  their  actual  condition,  that 
Jesus  used  the  sternest  words  He  could  find 
in  order  to  awaken  and  undeceive  them. 
82 


RENUNCIATION 


He  told  them  that  they  were  in  danger  of 
the  damnation  of  hell. 

Among  the  sins  of  the  spirit  are  pride, 
self-conceit,  contempt  for  others,  arro- 
gance, social  indifference,  selfishness,  un- 
brotherliness,  covetousness.  On  the  other 
hand,  St.  Paul  describes  the  fruit  of  the 
spirit  (Galatians  5:22)  as  "love,  joy,  peace, 
long  suffering,  gentleness,  goodness,  faith- 
fulness, meekness,  self-control." 

Indeed,  all  sins  begin  in  the  spirit.  They 
are  first  a  thought  of  the  heart  before  they 
become  a  word  or  a  deed.  Sin,  therefore, 
is  to  be  encountered  at  the  outset,  in  the 
spirit,  before  it  has  a  chance  to  grow.  We 
are  to  attach  great  importance  to  the 
thoughts  which  we  think,  realizing  that  in 
them  is  the  reality  of  our  character.  "  As  a 
man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he  "  (Prov- 
erbs 23:7).  So  is  he  in  the  sight  of  God, 
who  looks  past  all  that  we  say  and  do  to 
what  we  are.  "Keep  thy  heart  with  all 
diligence,  for  out  of  it  are  the  issues  of 
life"  (Proverbs  4:23).  We  observe  in  the 
account  of  our  Lord's  temptation  that  He 
was  defended  against  evil  by  the  fact  that 
His  heart  was  full  of  good  thoughts.  His 
memory  was  stored  with  helpful  words. 

83 


RENUNCIATION 


When  He  was  tempted,  He  immediately 
brought  to  His  assistance  a  sentence  from 
the  Bible.  He  was  armed  with  "  the  sword 
of  the  spirit,  which  is  the  word  of  God" 
(Ephesians  6:17). 

IV 

The  renunciation  of  the  world  is  directed 
against  the  sins  of  society. 

Even  though  "the  world"  is  commonly 
regarded  in  the  New  Testament  as  a  place 
of  evil,  it  was  not  the  wish  of  our  Lord  that 
His  disciples  should  depart  out  of  it  —  only 
out  of  the  sin  of  it.  He  Himself  lived  in  it 
so  naturally,  and  in  such  a  friendly  spirit, 
and  found  so  much  good  in  it,  that  the 
Pharisees  were  scandalized.  There  was  a 
group  in  Jerusalem  called  "bleeding  Phar- 
isees" because  they  went  about  blind- 
folded that  they  might  not  even  see  the 
world,  and  were  continually  bumping  them- 
selves against  corners.  With  that  sort  of 
relation  to  the  world,  Jesus  had  no  sym- 
pathy. 

The  early  Christians  found  it  difficult  to 
follow  the  example  of  their  Master,  partly 
because  the  world  of  their  day  was  uncom- 
monly bad,  and  partly  because  of  a  philo- 

84 


RENUNCIATION 


sophical  doctrine  current  at  that  time  to  the 
effect  that  matter  is  essentially  evil.  The 
body,  the  philosophers  said,  is  not  only  the 
source  and  means  of  sin,  but  is  totally  and 
hopelessly  alien  from  good.  All  the  ma- 
terial concerns  of  man  are  bad.  All  busi- 
ness and  all  pleasure,  all  social  life  and  al- 
most all  of  the  natural  occupations  of 
human  beings,  are  of  the  devil.  To  carry 
such  a  doctrine  into  its  logical  applications 
was  impossible.  But  many  Christians 
tried  it.  They  abandoned  the  world  and 
sought  in  the  seclusion  of  deserts  and 
mountains  to  save  their  souls. 

The  gospel  records  of  the  life  of  Christ 
remained  to  correct  this  error,  though  the 
endeavor  was  made  again  and  again  to  live 
in  another  world  instead  of  this.  It  was 
gradually  understood  that  God  made  us 
with  bodies  as  well  as  souls,  and  placed  us 
in  communities  in  this  present  world,  be- 
cause He  wishes  us  to  live  in  these  condi- 
tions. The  world  is  a  revelation  of  His 
will.  We  are  to  live  in  the  world,  enjoying 
to  the  full  the  pleasures  which  God  has 
provided  in  it;  but  we  are  not  to  be  con- 
formed to  it.  That  is,  we  are  not  to  follow 
the  world's  opinion,  nor  to  care  very  greatly 

85 


RENUNCIATION 


for  the  world's  approval.  We  are  not  to 
have  the  world's  ideal,  according  to  which 
wealth  and  pleasure  are  chief  goods.  We 
are  not  to  live  as  if  this  visible  world  were 
all  the  world  there  is. 

These  principles  determine  the  Christian 
attitude  towards  amusement. 

Amusement  is  not  only  a  universal  and 
necessary  part  of  human  life,  but  is  a  con- 
tinuing fact  of  which  we  must  take  account. 
People,  young  and  old,  have  always  amused 
themselves,  and  will  always  amuse  them- 
selves. It  is  a  divine  instinct.  Even  the 
methods  of  amusement  have  a  permanent 
quality,  and  defy  all  endeavors  to  change 
them.  Human  beings  are  so  made  as  to 
enjoy  music  and  dancing  and  the  play 
at  the  theatre.  These  amusements  are 
found  in  all  lands  and  times.  They 
are  often  in  need  of  reformation,  but 
to  pronounce  the  thing  itself  wrong,  be- 
cause for  the  moment  it  is  wrongly  done,  is 
to  make  an  artificial  sin.  There  are  real 
sins  enough,  without  confusing  the  dif- 
ference between  good  and  evil  by  manu- 
facturing new  ones.  Indeed,  considering 
the  inevitable  continuance  of  these  forms 
of  recreation,  there  is  need  not  so  much  of 
86 


RENUNCIATION 


reprobation  as  of  co-operation.  Christians 
ought  to  encourage  every  attempt  to  pro- 
vide good  music,  good  dancing,  and  good 
plays.  If  the  theatre,  for  example,  should 
be  deserted  by  Christians,  the  drama  would 
naturally  grow  worse  and  worse,  suiting 
itself  to  the  audience.  That  which  might 
be  an  influence  to  uplift  society  would  be- 
come an  influence  to  degrade  it.  Every 
good  play  which  succeeds  because  good 
people  go  to  it,  encourages  every  other  ef- 
fort to  produce  good  plays. 

As  for  the  place  of  these  matters  in  the 
life  of  the  individual,  the  Episcopal  Church 
lays  down  no  rules.  The  principle  to  be 
followed  is  that  which  holds  in  regard  to 
eating  and  drinking.  We  are  to  eat  and 
drink  that  which  agrees  with  us,  determin- 
ing our  food  by  its  actual  effect.  And,  in 
like  manner,  we  are  to  use  amusements.  If 
any  form  of  recreation  disagrees  with  our 
character,  ministering  to  our  baser  selves, 
spoiling  the  fineness  of  our  thoughts, 
smearing  the  fair  surface  of  our  souls,  lower- 
ing our  ideals  of  conduct,  or  even  taking 
too  much  of  our  time,  it  is  to  be  given  up, 
on  that  account.  But  amusements  after 
which  we  can  say  our  prayers  with  a  pure 

87 


RENUNCIATION 


heart,  and  which  refresh  us  for  the  serious 
work  of  life,  are  good  because  they  do  us 
good. 

V 

The  renunciation  of  the  flesh  is  directed 
against  the  sins  of  the  body. 

We  perceive  in  ourselves  two  natures, 
one  akin  to  the  animals,  the  other  akin  to 
the  angels.  We  hear  two  voices,  one  calling 
us  to  take  the  broad  and  easy  path  which 
leads  to  destruction,  the  other  calling  us  to 
take  the  straitened  and  difficult  way  which 
leads  to  life.  We  have  a  body,  and  we 
have  a  soul.  Under  these  conditions,  the 
body,  as  St.  Paul  said,  is  to  be  kept  under. 
It  is  to  be  treated  as  a  useful  servant.  It  is 
to  be  maintained  in  health  and  strength  for 
the  sake  of  efficient  service.  Whatever  in 
the  conduct  or  condition  of  the  body  in- 
terferes with  the  best  state  of  the  mind  or 
of  the  soul  is  to  be  subdued  or  reformed. 

The  major  sins  of  the  body  are  indicated 
by  the  phrase  "the  sinful  lusts  of  the 
flesh."  They  take  the  form  of  impurity 
and  of  intemperance.  They  are  revealed 
as  wicked  by  the  fact  that  they  are  fol- 
lowed by  natural  punishments,  as  burning 
88 


RENUNCIATION 


follows  the  handling  of  fire.  They  pro- 
duce diseases  —  sometimes  loathsome  dis- 
eases—  of  mind  and  body.  They  are 
poisons,  sometimes  quick,  but  more  often 
slow,  which  result  at  first  in  pain  and  at 
last  in  death.  They  are  to  be  dreaded 
and  avoided  like  the  plague. 

These  sins  are  followed  by  other  punish- 
ments also  in  their  social  consequences. 
They  harm  not  only  the  sinner,  but  all 
who  are  connected  with  him.  They  not 
only  deprive  him  of  usefulness  by  making 
him  sick,  and  by  bringing  him,  in  many 
cases,  to  poverty,  but  they  destroy  the 
happiness  of  families.  They  cause  distress 
and  misery  which  are  often  far  worse 
than  the  tragedy  of  death.  And  they  live 
after  him:  they  are  visited,  in  the  order  of 
nature,  upon  his  children.  Because  of 
the  impurity  or  the  intemperance  of  par- 
ents children  are  bora  subject  to  the  same 
temptations.  They  are  weak  because  their 
parents  by  their  conduct  weakened  them 
before  their  birth.  The  sinful  lusts  of  the 
flesh  are  responsible  for  the  greater  part 
of  all  the  unhappiness  of  human  life. 

There  are  also  minor  sins  of  the  body, 
which,  while  they  do  not  destroy  life, 

89 


RENUNCIATION 


dull  it.  They  keep  us  from  making  the 
best  of  ourselves.  They  hinder  our  effi- 
ciency. They  interfere  with  clear  thought, 
and  alert  action,  and  blur  the  difference 
between  right  and  wrong.  Such  are  the 
sins  of  indolence,  and  the  indulgence  of 
appetite.  Sometimes  they  take  the  form 
of  too  much  attention  to  the  body,  in 
soft  and  luxurious  and  enervating  living. 
Sometimes  they  take  the  form  of  too  little 
attention  to  the  body,  in  neglect  of  cleanli- 
ness and  exercise.  They  too  have  then- 
natural  and  proper  punishments,  which 
reveal  the  displeasure  of  God.  The  book 
of  Proverbs,  for  example,  is  full  of  warn- 
ings against  idleness  and  sloth.  "I  went 
by  the  field  of  the  slothful,  and  by  the 
vineyard  of  the  man  void  of  understand- 
ing; and  lo,  it  was  all  overgrown  with 
thorns,  and  nettles  had  covered  the  face 
thereof,  and  the  stone  wall  thereof  was 
broken  down.  Then  I  saw,  and  con- 
sidered it  well.  I  looked  upon  it,  and  re- 
ceived instruction.  Yet  a  little  sleep,  a 
little  slumber,  a  little  folding  of  the  hands 
to  sleep:  so  shall  thy  poverty  come  upon 
thee  as  one  that  travelleth;  and  thy 
want  as  an  armed  man  "  (Proverbs  24: 
90 


RENUNCIATION 

30-34).  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  Bible 
account  of  the  victories  of  Joshua,  there 
occurs  four  times  the  significant  sentence, 
"Joshua  rose  up  early  in  the  morning." 
It  is  one  of  the  reasons  of  his  success. 


9i 


OBEDIENCE 


OBEDIENCE 


I.   The  Commandments  in  General 
II.   Our  Duty  Towards  God 

1.  First  commandment:  to  have  God 

2.  Second  commandment:  the  idolatry  of 

covetousness 

3.  Third  commandment:  against  irrev- 

erence 

4.  Fourth  commandment:  rest  and  reli- 

gion 

III.   Our  Duty  Towards  our  Neighbor 

1.  Fifth  commandment:  obedience  and 

courtesy 

2.  Sixth  commandment:  against  murder 

and  hatred 

3.  Seventh  commandment:  in  the  letter, 

in  the  spirit 

4.  Eighth  commandment:  against  profit 

by  other's  loss 

5.  Ninth  commandment:   against  un- 

brotherly  speech 

6.  Tenth  commandment:  against  love  of 

money 


95 


VI 


OBEDIENCE 

Christian  obedience  consists  in  keeping 
God's  holy  will  and  commandments  and 
walking  in  the  same  all  the  days  of  our  life. 

I 

The  commandments  are  stated  in  the 
Old  Testament  in  the  twentieth  chapter 
of  Exodus,  and,  with  slight  differences, 
in  the  fifth  chapter  of  Deuteronomy.  The 
differences,  which  appear  chiefly  in  the 
fourth  commandment,  suggest  that  all  of 
these  ancient  laws  were  originally  as  brief 
as  some  of  them  are  still.  In  that  case, 
the  additions  were  written  in  afterwards 
for  purposes  of  explanation  or  application. 

The  commandments  are  interpreted  in 
the  New  Testament,  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount.  Our  Lord  there  takes  the  sixth 
commandment,  and  the  seventh,  and  per- 
haps the  third  and  shows  how  they  are 
to  be  kept:  not  in  the  letter  only,  but  in 
96 


OBEDIENCE 


the  spirit;  not  in  deed  and  in  word  only 
but  even  in  the  heart. 

The  commandments  are  paraphrased 
and  applied  in  the  Prayer  Book  in  "My 
Duty  towards  God,"  and  "My  Duty 
towards  my  Neighbor."  The  distinction 
is  one  which  appears  in  our  Lord's  state- 
ment of  the  two  great  commandments, 
"Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with 
all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and 
with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  first  and 
great  commandment.  And  the  second  is 
like  unto  it:  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself." 

This  is  what  is  meant  by  religion  as  dis- 
tinguished from  morality.  Religion  is 
concerned  with  God;  morality,  with  our 
neighbor.  Religion  is  exercised  in  faith 
and  prayer,  in  services  and  sacraments, 
in  a  holy  life.  Morality  is  exercised  in 
being  good  and  in  doing  good,  in  brother- 
liness  and  helpfulness,  in  a  righteous  life. 
It  is  possible  to  consider  these  duties 
separately,  in  definitions  and  command- 
ments, but  they  are  combined  in  life  as 
oxygen  and  hydrogen  are  combined  in 
water.  Each  implies  and  needs  the  other. 
Thus,  at  the  transfiguration,  some  of  the 

97 


OBEDIENCE 


apostles,  on  the  mountain,  were  proposing 
to  live  devoutly  with  God  out  of  sight  of 
their  neighbors:  but  Jesus  forbade  them. 
Meanwhile,  some  of  the  apostles,  on  the 
plain,  were  trying  to  live  helpfully  with 
their  neighbors  without  help  from  God: 
but  they  failed,  because  they  had  not 
strengthened  themselves  by  prayer.  Be- 
cause God  is  our  Father  we  serve  Him  in 
all  our  service  of  our  brethren.  Because 
the  effectiveness  of  our  service  depends 
greatly  on  what  sort  of  persons  we  are, 
we  prepare  ourselves  for  it  by  communion 
with  God. 

II 

Our  duty  towards  God  is  set  forth  in  the 
first  four  commandments,  our  duty  towards 
our  neighbor  in  the  last  six. 

i.  The  first  commandment  forbids  poly- 
theism, the  worship  of  many  gods.  Poly- 
theism is  the  kind  of  religion  which  we 
read  of  in  the  Iliad  and  the  yEneid.  It 
exists  still  in  distant  lands,  in  India  and 
Africa.  When  this  commandment  was 
given  it  was  almost  universal.  The  neigh- 
bors of  the  people  of  Israel,  and  all  the 
nations  with  whom  they  dealt,  had  many 
98 


OBEDIENCE 


gods.  It  is  likely  that  the  purpose  of  the 
commandment  was  less  theological  than 
moral.  Among  the  many  gods  of  the 
heathen  were  some  who  represented  cruelty, 
some  who  represented  immorality.  They 
were  believed  by  their  worshippers  to 
encourage  them  in  evil.  The  Hebrews 
were  to  have  one  only  God,  not  only  be- 
cause there  is  in  truth  only  one  God  over 
all  the  earth,  but  because  God,  as  they 
were  taught  to  regard  Him,  is  a  righteous 
God,  concerned  about  the  conduct  of 
men. 

We  are  not  in  peril  of  this  ancient  error, 
but  there  is  something  worse  than  having 
many  gods,  and  that  is  having  no  God  at 
all.  The  commandment  means  for  us 
that  we  are  to  have  God.  We  are  not  to  be 
like  those  who  are  described  as  "without 
God  in  the  world."  We  are  to  realize  that 
at  the  beginning  of  our  life,  and  in  all  our 
life,  the  Maker  of  the  universe  of  suns  and 
stars,  and  of  ourselves  in  the  midst  of  it 
all,  is  God.  Him  we  are  to  obey  as  His 
will  is  revealed  in  the  Bible.  To  Him  we 
are  to  pray.  We  are  to  worship  Him,  to 
give  Him  thanks,  to  put  our  whole  trust 
in  Him,  to  call  upon  Him,  to  honor  His 


99 


OBEDIENCE 


holy  name  and  His  word,  and  to  serve 
Him  truly  all  the  days  of  our  life. 

2.  The  second  commandment  forbids 
idolatry,  the  use  of  images  to  represent 
God.  Idolatry  was  as  universal  as  poly- 
theism, and  was  a  natural  accompaniment 
of  it:  if  there  are  many  gods,  it  is  con- 
venient to  have  them  distinguished  one 
from  another  by  some  manner  of  symbols. 
The  Hebrews  lived  in  a  world  in  which 
idolatry  was  considered  an  essential  part 
of  religion.  They  were  tempted  by  it 
through  long  centuries  of  their  history. 
Their  ancestors  had  worshipped  idols  in 
Mesopotamia.  Rachel  brought  some  of 
the  family  idols  with  her  when  she  came 
to  Palestine  (Genesis  31:19).  Aaron  made 
an  idol  on  the  plain  of  Sinai  (Exodus  32 :8). 
David  had  an  idol  in  his  house  (I  Samuel 
19:13).  The  prophets  again  and  again 
reproved  the  people  for  idolatry  (Isaiah 
2:8,  Ezekiel  30:13,  Zechariah  13:2). 

Idolatry  comes  from  the  natural  desire  to 
realize  God,  somehow  to  see  and  touch  Him. 
This  desire  is  met  for  us  in  the  incarna- 
tion. God  is  made  man.  In  Jesus  Christ 
we  find  Him  revealed  in  a  form  which 
appeals  to  our  minds  and  to  our  hearts. 
100 


OBEDIENCE 


The  evil  of  idolatry  is  in  its  debasing 
effect  upon  religion.  People  are  led  by 
their  idols  into  petty  and  magical  and  un- 
worthy ideas  of  God,  believing  that  He  is 
contained  in  a  sacred  image  or  other  sym- 
bol, and  is  thus  resident  upon  an  altar,  and 
may  be  used  for  our  protection  or  advan- 
tage. It  was  in  this  spirit  that  the  Israel- 
ites carried  the  Ark  into  the  battle,  think- 
ing thereby  to  win  a  victory  (I  Samuel 
4:4). 

We  are  no  more  tempted  now  to  break 
the  second  commandment  than  the  first. 
But  St.  Paul  gave  a  definition  of  idolatry 
which  brings  it  close  to  us.  He  said  that 
covetousness  is  idolatry  (Colossians  3:5). 
The  effect  of  covetousness  is  to  put  some 
material  thing  in  the  place  of  God.  This 
the  man  desires,  this  he  considers  and 
obeys,  this  he  serves,  with  this  he  is  satis- 
fied. It  is  only  a  little  removed  from  the 
idols  of  the  heathen. 

As  for  the  "jealousy"  of  God  to  which 
reference  is  made  in  the  commandment, 
we  are  to  remember  that  the  word  has  not 
only  a  bad  meaning  but  a  good  meaning. 
On  the  bad  side  it  means  distrust  of  one's 
friends;  but  on  the  good  side  to  be  jealous 

101 


OBEDIENCE 


is  the  same  as  to  be  zealous,  —  to  be  filled 
with  zeal,  to  be  exceedingly  in  earnest  for 
the  welfare  of  one's  friends.  God  is  a 
jealous  God  in  that  He  is  greatly  concerned 
for  the  good  of  our  souls.  His  jealousy  is 
like  that  of  fathers  and  mothers  who  find 
their  children  giving  their  confidence  and 
affection  to  bad  companions. 

3.  The  third  commandment  means  that 
religion  is  of  such  importance  that  it  is 
always  to  be  taken  seriously.  The  com- 
mandment applies  directly  to  our  use  of  the 
name  of  God.  It  forbids  perjury,  i.  e.,  the 
invoking  of  God's  name  in  court  in  sup- 
port of  any  statement  which  is  not  true. 
It  also  forbids  profanity,  i.  e.,  the  naming 
of  God  lightly  as  a  help  to  emphasis  in 
conversation.  The  commandment  applies 
indirectly  to  our  relation  towards  all  holy 
things  and  places.  We  are  to  remember 
how  our  Lord  drove  the  traders  from  the 
temple  because  it  was  a  house  of  prayer 
(Matthew  21:12,  13),  and  how  He  would 
not  permit  any  man  to  carry  a  burden 
therein  (Mark  11:16).  He  knew  that  it 
was  for  our  spiritual  good  that  holy  places 
should  be  set  apart  from  all  the  ordinary 
business  of  life,  and  kept  quiet  and  sacred. 
102 


OBEDIENCE 


Thus  we  learn  how  to  behave  ourselves  in 
church,  not  only  in  service  time,  but  at 
all  times. 

A  liturgical  service,  such  as  we  have, 
brings  peril  in  connection  with  this  com- 
mandment. We  are  tempted  into  such 
familiarity  with  sacred  words  and  names 
as  to  lead  to  our  taking  them  upon  our 
lips  without  realizing  them  in  our  hearts. 
We  may  well  pray  against  this  sin  when 
we  kneel  in  silence  at  the  beginning  of  the 
service. 

The  breaking  of  this  commandment 
brings  its  natural  punishment.  God  can- 
not hold  the  offenders  guiltless  because 
irreverence  affects  character.  It  dulls  our 
sensitiveness  to  the  finer  side  of  life,  and 
gradually  renders  us  incapable  of  perceiv- 
ing God.  It  is  like  the  negligences  and 
ignorances  which  make  people  blind  to  the 
best  art,  and  deaf  to  the  best  music. 

4.  The  fourth  commandment  means  that 
religion  is  of  such  importance  that  every 
week  a  day  is  to  be  set  apart  for  it.  In  the 
Old  Testament,  the  chief  meaning  of  the 
commandment  is  social  (Deuteronomy 
5:15) :  the  Sabbath  is  a  day  of  rest.  In  the 
New  Testament  the  chief  meaning  is 

103 


OBEDIENCE 


spiritual:  Sunday  is  the  "Lord's  Day,"  a 
day  of  religion. 

The  day  is  to  be  observed  according  to 
these  definitions.  As  a  day  of  rest,  it  is  a 
time  of  leisure  from  the  stress  and  haste 
of  life,  for  ourselves  and  for  others.  It  has 
its  psychological  value  in  the  increase  of 
efficiency.  The  welfare  of  the  people  far 
exceeds  in  importance  the  business  inter- 
ests of  the  community.  The  contrast  be- 
tween a  small  number  of  prosperous  and 
privileged  persons  over  against  a  great 
number  of  dull  and  tired  people  whose 
labor  leaves  them  neither  time  nor  strength 
for  true  happiness,  contradicts  all  the 
commandments.  Everybody  is  entitled  to 
one  day  of  rest  in  seven.  Whatever  on 
that  day  brings  rest  and  refreshment  to 
mind  and  body  is  in  accordance  with  the 
commandment,  which  does  indeed  forbid 
work,  but  does  not  in  any  syllable  forbid 
play:  quiet  and  orderly  recreation,  the 
open  air  of  the  country,  books,  pictures, 
music.  The  day  is  happily  marked  in 
households  by  special  games  and  privileges 
for  children.  What  is  needed  is  not  so 
much  prohibition  as  affirmation.  Religion 
is  in  error  when  it  gives  a  holiday  with 
104 


OBEDIENCE 


one  hand,  and  takes  it  back  with  the 
other. 

As  a  day  of  religion,  it  is  to  be  made  to 
minister  to  our  spiritual  nature.  We  are 
to  attend  to  the  quality  of  our  life,  to  keep 
the  perspective  right,  to  readjust  our 
standard  of  values,  to  deepen  our  sense  of 
the  relation  of  our  mortality  to  our  im- 
mortality. For  these  purposes,  the  serv- 
ices and  sacraments  of  the  Church  are 
offered.  We  are  to  make  use  of  them  for 
the  sustaining  of  our  souls :  for  our  salvation 
from  our  besetting  temptations,  for  our 
growth  in  grace.  Children  are  to  go  to 
Sunday  school,  and,  when  they  are  old 
enough,  to  church.  Remembering  also  the 
social  side  of  religion,  Sunday  is  a  day  for 
neighborly  helpfulness  and  ministration. 

In  the  change  from  Judaism  to  Chris- 
tianity the  holy  day  was  changed  from 
the  end  of  the  week  to  the  beginning. 
The  new  day  has  often  been  called  "  The 
Christian  Sabbath  "  but  the  name  "  Sab- 
bath "  belongs  more  properly  to  Saturday. 
The  Christian  day  is  "  Sunday." 


105 


OBEDIENCE 


III 

The  other  six  commandments  concern 
our  duty  towards  our  neighbor.  We  are 
to  love  him  as  ourself.  That  is,  we  are 
not  only  to  deal  with  him  according  to  the 
Golden  Rule,  "As  ye  would  that  men 
should  do  to  you,  do  ye  also  to  them  like- 
wise" (Luke  6:3),  but  according  to  that 
other  word  of  our  Lord  when  He  said, 
"This  is  my  commandment,  that  ye  love 
one  another  as  I  have  loved  you  "  (John 
15:12).  When  we  remember  how  far  His 
love  carried  Him,  even  to  the  self-sacrifice 
of  the  cross,  we  see  what  an  ideal  is  there 
set  before  us.  As  for  the  lesser  standard 
of  loving  our  neighbor  as  ourself,  we  may 
apply  it  profitably  to  the  judgments  which 
we  pass  upon  our  neighbors,  and  consider 
if  we  make  as  much  allowance  for  them 
as  we  do  for  ourselves. 

1.  The  fifth  commandment  teaches  us  to 
love,  honor  and  succour  (=help)  our  father 
and  mother,  to  honor  and  obey  the  civil 
authority,  to  submit  ourselves  to  all  our 
governors,  teachers,  spiritual  pastors  and 
masters,  to  order  ourselves  lowly  and 
reverently  to  all  our  betters.  There  is 
106 


OBEDIENCE 


some  inclination  to-day  to  resent  this  an- 
cient interpretation,  especially  on  the  part 
of  those  who  dislike  the  words  "masters" 
and  "betters."  They  feel  that  it  is  an 
endeavor  of  the  "upper  classes"  to  keep 
the  plain  people  in  subjection.  The  truth 
is,  however,  that  obedience  is  a  fundamen- 
tal virtue,  without  which  neither  state,  nor 
church,  nor  school,  nor  family  can  go  on. 
So  far  from  being  a  duty  mainly  of  the 
weak  and  ignorant  and  very  young,  it  is 
at  the  heart  of  all  success  in  the  most 
strenuous  of  manly  exercises:  the  training 
of  the  athlete  for  the  games  which  are  a 
kind  of  war  in  play,  and  the  training  of  the 
soldier  for  war  in  earnest.  Without  the 
habit  of  instant  and  unquestioning  obe- 
dience all  strength  is  turned  to  weakness. 
What  is  needed  is  the  "team-play" 
whereby  everybody  subordinates  himself 
to  a  common  purpose.  It  is  a  necessity  in 
households,  where  it  is  a  form  of  "playing 
the  game."  Children  are  to  obey  their 
parents  as  they  obey  the  leaders  of  their 
sports. 

The  commandment  has  regard  not  only 
to  the  duties  but  to  the  graces  of  life.  It 
enjoins  courtesy,  such  as  is  easily  lost  in 

107 


OBEDIENCE 


the  informality  of  our  social  ways,  but 
which,  wherever  it  appears,  smooths  and 
lightens  and  cheers  and  beautifies  social 
relations.  It  suggests  the  consideration 
and  deference  of  youth  for  age. 

The  long  life  which  is  promised  is  na- 
tional rather  than  individual.  The  keeping 
of  the  commandment  makes  a  substantial 
basis  for  all  civil  institutions,  and  gives  a 
people  length  of  days.  An  illustration  is 
the  reverence  for  ancestors  which  exists  in 
China. 

2.  The  sixth  commandment,  in  the 
letter,  forbids  murder,  i.  e.,  the  malicious 
taking  of  human  life.  It  is  extended  to 
include  suicide,  on  which  the  church  puts  a 
certain  ban  by  forbidding  the  use  of  the 
burial  service  of  the  Prayer  Book  over 
those  who  have  laid  violent  hands  upon 
themselves.  This,  however,  is  not  applied 
to  such  as  have  thus  made  away  with 
themselves  under  conditions  of  insanity. 
As  for  capital  punishment,  it  is  sanctioned 
in  the  Bible;  and  the  same  is  true  of  war. 
We  anticipate  the  time,  however,  when  the 
progress  of  civilization  and  religion  shall 
put  an  end  to  these  tragic  disciplines.  The 
true  purpose  of  punishment  is  remedial. 
108 


OBEDIENCE 


The  true  settlement  of  disputes  between 
nations,  as  between  individuals,  is  by  reason 
and  just  laws.  The  doctrine  that  might 
makes  right  is  a  doctrine  of  the  devil. 

In  the  spirit,  the  commandment  forbids 
hatred,  unforgiveness,  unbrotherliness.  It 
is  thus  explained  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  (Matthew  5:21,  22,  38-48).  We 
pray  that  we  may  keep  it,  when  we  ask  to 
be  forgiven  as  we  forgive  those  who  hate 
us.  The  Church  forbids  those  to  come  to 
the  Holy  Communion  betwixt  whom  the 
minister  perceiveth  malice  and  hatred  to 
reign,  not  suffering  them  to  be  partakers 
of  the  Lord's  Table  until  he  know  them  to 
be  reconciled.  This  is  a  following  of  our 
Lord's  direction  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  (Matthew  5:23,  24).  This,  how- 
ever, is  not  applied  to  either  one  who  is 
willing  to  make  amends  of  that  wherein 
he  himself  hath  offended. 

3.  The  seventh  commandment,  in  the 
letter,  forbids  adultery,  i.  e.,  that  a  man 
should  take  another's  wife,  or  that  a 
woman  should  have  another's  husband. 
It  does  not  forbid  divorce,  but  it  is  inter- 
preted in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  as 
forbidding  re-marriage  (so  long  as  a  di- 

109 


OBEDIENCE 


vorced  husband  or  wife  is  living)  except  in 
the  case  of  the  innocent  party  in  a  divorce 
for  the  cause  of  adultery  (Matthew  5:32). 
The  canons  of  the  Church  forbid  re- 
marriage after  divorce,  even  under  this 
condition,  until  a  full  year  has  elapsed. 
Even  then,  the  minister  must  refer  the 
case  to  the  bishop  for  his  decision. 

In  the  spirit,  the  meaning  of  the  com- 
mandment is  contained  in  two  sayings  of 
St.  Paul  concerning  our  bodies.  "Your 
bodies,"  he  says,  "are  the  members  of 
Christ";  and  again,  "your  body  is  the 
temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost  "  (I  Corinthians 
6:15-20).  It  is  the  doctrine  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  the  body.  Whatever  degrades  or 
defiles  the  body  is  forbidden.  And  this, 
our  Lord  extends  even  to  the  most  secret 
thoughts  of  our  hearts  (Matthew  5:28). 
It  includes  the  impurity  of  the  eye.  It 
includes  also  all  such  reading  or  theatre- 
going  or  talking  as  may  soil  the  soul.  A 
good  rule  for  young  people  is  to  test  these 
things  by  asking  themselves  regarding 
them,  "Would  my  father  and  mother  like 
me  to  do  or  say  this?" 

4.  The  eighth  commandment,  in  the 
letter,  forbids  stealing,  i.  e.,  the  taking  of 
no 


OBEDIENCE 


that  which  does  not  belong  to  us.  The 
catechism  includes  "  picking,"  i.  e.,  the 
little  dishonesties  which  seem  insignificant 
in  themselves,  but  which  lead  to  greater 
offences.  We  are  to  keep  absolutely  clear 
the  distinction  between  that  which  is  our 
own,  and  that  which  is  our  neighbor's. 

In  the  spirit,  the  commandment  includes 
all  actions  whereby  we  profit  by  our  neigh- 
bor's loss.  We  may  not  honestly  profit 
either  by  his  ignorance  or  by  his  bad  luck. 
Gambling,  betting  and  the  chances  of  the 
lottery  are  not  only  endeavors  to  get  this 
kind  of  profit,  but  they  are  harmful  in  that 
they  are  attempts  to  get  something  for 
nothing.  Taken  in  single  instances,  these 
may  seem  insignificant,  but  they  are  little 
steps  toward  habits  which  are  so  destruc- 
tive both  of  character  and  of  happiness 
that  they  are  forbidden  by  law.  They 
have  been  considered  innocent.  Colleges 
and  churches  have  been  assisted  by  lot- 
teries. But  experience  has  shown  that 
they  are  slow  poisons.  The  good  Christian 
will  take  no  part  in  any  of  them,  for  his 
own  sake  and  for  the  sake  of  his  neighbor. 

5.  The  ninth  commandment,  in  the 
letter,  forbids  false  witness  in  a  court  of 

in 


OBEDIENCE 


law.  In  the  spirit,  it  is  against  all  lies 
everywhere.  A  He  is  that  whereby  we 
deceive  our  neighbor  to  his  hurt.  The 
catechism  includes  evil  speaking  and  slan- 
dering. We  are  to  keep  our  tongue  from 
all  unkind  words,  even  when  that  which 
we  are  tempted  to  say  is  true.  The  un- 
happiness  of  the  world,  of  which  there  is 
enough  already,  is  needlessly  increased 
by  such  unbrotherly  speech.  The  good 
Christian  tries  to  see  good  rather  than  ill 
in  others,  and  brings  his  religion  into  his 
conversation  by  defending  the  absent,  and 
softening  the  hard  judgments  of  his  neigh- 
bors. Thus  he  fulfils  what  St.  James  calls 
the  Royal  Law:  "Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself  "  (James  2:8).  In  gen- 
eral, a  good  rule  is  to  speak  as  if  our 
neighbor  were  in  the  next  room  hearing 
every  word  we  say. 

6.  The  tenth  commandment,  in  the 
letter,  forbids  that  love  of  money  which  is 
the  root  of  all  evil  (I  Timothy  6:10).  For 
the  sake  of  gain,  hideous  offences  are 
every  day  committed.  The  sins  of  im- 
purity and  intemperance  are  deliberately 
encouraged,  rents  are  taken  from  in- 
sanitary tenements,  business  is  so  con- 
112 


OBEDIENCE 


ducted  as  to  neglect  the  welfare  of  men, 
women  and  children,  or  to  hinder  it.  The 
cruelty  of  covetousness  is  almost  beyond 
belief.  It  is  to  be  shunned,  even  in  its 
small  beginnings,  like  a  pestilence. 

In  the  spirit,  the  commandment  re- 
minds us  that  all  sins  begin  in  the  desire  of 
the  heart.  Every  sin,  long  before  it  comes 
to  accomplishment,  has  its  root  in  a 
wrong  thought.  There  it  is  to  be  en- 
countered and  overcome.  We  are  to 
guard  our  minds.  "As  a  man  thinketh  in 
himself,  so  is  he"  (Proverbs  23:7).  "Keep 
thy  heart  with  all  diligence,  for  out  of  it 
are  the  issues  of  life"  (Proverbs,  4:23). 


"3 


THE  CREED 


THE  CREED 


I.   Faith  and  the  Faith 

Creeds:  Articles 
II.   The  Two  Sides  of  Truth 

1.  Distinction  in  sight 

2.  Distinction  in  science 

3.  Distinction  in  heresy 

III.   The  Three  Great  Doctrines 

1.  The  Trinity 

(1)  Complexity  in  unity 

(2)  God  in  action 

2.  The  Incarnation 

(1)  Human  and  divine  desires 

(2)  Recognition  of  divinity 

(3)  God  shining  through 

3.  The  Atonement 

(1)  To  pay  the  devil:  immoral 

(2)  To  propitiate  God:  artificial 

(3)  To  reconcile  us  to  God 
IV.   Other  Articles  of  the  Creed 

1.  The  virgin  birth:  natural  and  super- 

natural 

2.  The  descent  into  hell 

3.  Christ's  resurrection:  physical  and 

spiritual 

4.  The  resurrection  of  the  body 


VII 


THE  CREED 
I 

There  is  a  difference  between  faith  and 
the  faith.  Faith  is  a  matter  of  emotion, 
the  faith  is  a  matter  of  understanding. 
Faith  is  like  appreciation  of  the  splendor 
of  the  stars,  the  faith  is  like  the  intricate 
mathematics  of  astronomy.  Faith  is  like 
a  child's  trust  and  affection,  the  faith  is 
like  a  child's  knowledge  of  the  things  which 
interest  his  parents:  the  child's  love  is 
perfect,  the  child's  acquaintance  with  his 
father's  business  is  inevitably  defective 
and  mistaken. 

This  is  the  distinction  between  religion 
and  theology:  the  Christian  religion  is  the 
loyal  following  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Chris- 
tian theology  is  an  examination,  and  anal- 
ysis, and  statement  of  what  is  implied 
in  that  allegiance. 

Accordingly,  faith  is  level  with  the 
humblest  mind,  and  is  consistent  with  very 
erroneous  ideas.  We  may  be  absurdly 
118 


THE  CREED 


mistaken  concerning  the  faith,  and  yet 
have  saving  faith.  When  Jesus  said  to  the 
woman  of  Canaan,  "Great  is  thy  faith," 
He  praised  a  pagan.  She  was  of  that  reli- 
gion whose  gods  are  in  the  Iliad  and  the 
Odyssey.  She  could  not  have  recited  even 
the  first  article  of  the  Apostles'  Creed. 
Her  theology  was  all  wrong,  but  great  was 
her  faith. 

The  faith  is  stated  in  the  Prayer  Book, 
in  the  first  place  for  acceptance,  in  the 
Creeds.  The  Apostles'  Creed,  written 
originally  in  Latin,  in  the  second  century, 
was  directed  against  the  doctrines  of  the 
heretic  Marcion,  who  taught  that  Jesus 
was  not  truly  man.  Marcion  said  that  He 
only  seemed  to  be  man.  Thus  the  Creed 
speaks  of  His  birth,  suffering,  death  and 
burial.  The  Nicene  Creed,  written  orig- 
inally in  Greek,  in  the  fourth  century,  was 
directed  against  the  doctrines  of  the  heretic 
Arms,  who  taught  that  Jesus  was  not  truly 
God.  Arius  said  that  He  was  an  inferior 
God,  created  by  God  the  Father.  Thus 
the  Creed  declares  that  He  is  "God  of 
(=  from)  God,  Light  of  Light,  very  God  of 
very  God,  begotten  not  made,  being  of  one 
substance  with  the  Father." 

119 


THE  CREED 


The  faith  is  stated,  in  the  second  place, 
for  our  instruction  or  information,  in  the 
Articles.  These  were  written  in  England 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  at  a  time  when 
churches  were  making  long  theological 
statements,  and  they  are  bound  up  with 
the  Prayer  Book  that  we  may  know  what 
our  Church  said  about  the  questions  which 
were  then  under  discussion.  Thus  we  re- 
plied at  that  time  to  Roman  Catholics  and 
to  Calvinists.  Nobody  is  now  asked 
whether  he  assents  to  these  statements, 
or  not.  If  the  old  questions  were  again 
debated,  the  theologians  might  still  reply  as 
they  did  in  the  sixteenth  century,  or  they 
might  have  other  and  better  answers  based 
on  several  hundred  years  of  further  study. 

II 

All  profound  truth  has  two  sides:  a 
nearer  side  which  we  can  touch  and  see, 
and  can  in  some  measure  understand, 
which  we  can  phrase  with  fair  accuracy  in 
convenient  formulas;  and  a  farther  side, 
where  we  enter  into  the  region  of  questions 
without  answers,  the  region  of  contradic- 
tion and  perplexity,  and  of  everlasting 
mystery. 
1 20 


THE  CREED 


i.  The  boundary  between  the  nearer 
and  the  farther  sides  of  truth  is  drawn  along 
the  limits  of  our  mental  sight.  For  the 
eyes  of  the  mind  are  like  the  eyes  of  the 
body,  having  a  limited  focus  within  which 
our  vision  is  clear,  beyond  which  our  vision 
is  obscure.  We  hold  a  printed  page  within 
reading  distance,  and  the  page  is  plain; 
we  can  read  every  word  of  it.  But  we 
remove  it  beyond  reading  distance,  and 
the  page  is  obscure,  the  letters  are  blurred, 
and  the  lines  run  into  each  other.  There  is 
no  blur  on  the  page;  the  blur  is  all  in  our 
eye. 

The  mind  works  in  the  same  way.  When 
our  thinking  is  perplexed,  and  truths  each 
of  which  must  be  true  contradict  each 
other,  we  have  gone  beyond  the  limits  of 
our  mental  sight.  Thus  the  idea  of  the 
personality  of  God  and  the  idea  of  the 
infinity  of  God  are  mutually  exclusive. 
Personality  implies  limitation,  infinity  has 
no  limitation.  At  the  same  time,  we  must 
think  of  God  as  personal,  because  person- 
ality is  the  highest  form  of  being  of  which 
we  have  any  conception;  and  we  cannot 
think  of  God  as  less  than  infinite.  The 
difficulty  is  in  our  minds.   So  with  many 

121 


THE  CREED 


other  insolvable  equations  in  theology: 
they  are  all  solvable,  if  we  could  see  far 
enough  to  solve  them.  We  find  them  dis- 
couragingly  difficult  because  they  are 
concerned  with  the  farther  side  of  truth. 

2.  This  distinction  between  the  nearer 
and  the  farther  side  is  not  peculiar  to 
religion.    It  is  quite  as  evident  in  science. 

Here  is  a  man  of  science  working  at  the 
problems  of  geology.  He  has  his  rocks 
about  him.  He  examines  them,  analyzes 
them,  names  them,  dates  them  —  within 
a  million  years.  But  he  has  only  to  take  the 
commonest  pebble  from  the  side  of  the 
road,  and  ask  it  a  few  questions,  to  find 
himself  wandering  in  the  uncharted  coun- 
try which  lies  on  the  farther  side  of  truth. 
He  will  be  confronted  with  the  impene- 
trable mystery  of  matter.  Nobody  knows 
what  it  is  made  of,  or  where  it  came  from. 

Here  is  a  man  of  science  working  at  the 
problems  of  botany.  He  is  classifying  his 
plants,  observing  their  behavior,  noting 
their  descriptive  names.  What  he  knows 
may  be  written  in  large  books.  But  he  has 
only  to  take  the  nearest  blade  of  common 
grass  and  question  it,  to  find  himself  in  the 
perpetual  fogs  which  lie  forever  on  the 
122 


THE  CREED 


farther  side  of  truth.  He  will  come  to  the 
inscrutable  mystery  of  life.  There  it  is, 
in  every  plant  that  grows,  but  it  evades  all 
examination.  Nobody  knows  anything 
about  it. 

Thus  science  as  well  as  religion  has 
its  farther  side.  Neither  has  any  monop- 
oly of  mystery.  Whoever  imagines  that 
science  is  occupied  with  definite  realities, 
while  religion  is  concerned  with  the  in- 
visible, the  intangible  and  the  unprovable, 
forgets  that  behind  the  definite  realities 
are  forces  whose  nature  is  unknown. 
Practical  science  deals  with  the  nearer  side 
of  the  mysterious  forces.  It  uses  electricity 
to  turn  our  wheels  and  light  our  houses, 
but  it  does  not  know  what  electricity  is. 

3.  The  difference  between  the  nearer 
and  the  farther  sides  of  truth  is  sometimes 
the  difference  between  orthodoxy  and 
heresy.  The  heretic  is  commonly  intent 
on  learning  and  teaching  truth.  He  is 
trying  to  understand  the  divine  side  of  the 
world,  and  to  make  it  understood  by  plain 
people.  He  would  bring  truth  out  of  the 
clouds  into  the  daily  service  of  man,  as  the 
philosopher  brought  down  the  lightning. 
In  this  endeavor  he  comes  upon  the  nearer 


123 


THE  CREED 


side  of  truth.  He  finds  it  clear,  and  reason- 
able, and  easy  to  understand.  He  accepts 
it  and  proclaims  it.  He  is  satisfied  with 
it.  It  is  a  good  enough  theology  for  him. 
But  he  overlooks  the  fact  that  his  truth  is 
only  a  fragment  of  a  great  immeasurable 
truth.  He  does  not  take  into  account  that 
beyond  this  nearer  side  which  is  so  plain 
is  a  farther  side  beyond  his  comprehension. 
"Now,"  he  cries,  ;;I  know  it  all!"  and, 
believing  himself  to  know  it  all,  he  be- 
comes a  heretic. 

For  heresy  is  not  necessarily  an  error; 
it  is  what  is  happily  called  a  ''short- 
coming." It  is  the  mistaking  of  a  part  for 
the  whole.  It  is  a  neglect  or  denial  of 
the  farther  side.  The  heretic  stands  by  the 
shore  of  the  ocean,  and  cries,  "I  see  hills 
and  the  steeples  of  cities  on  the  other 
shore."  But  if  he  does  see  hills  and  cities 
he  is  looking  not  across  the  ocean,  but 
across  some  narrow  sound  or  inlet. 

in 

The  Creeds  contain  the  three  chief  char- 
acteristic doctrines  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion: the  Trinity,  the  Incarnation  and  the 
Atonement.    In  our  study  of  these  doc- 


124 


THE  CREED 


trines  we  should  begin  with  the  nearer 
side.  What  we  need  is  to  get  out  of  the 
profound  teaching  of  religion  such  definite 
instruction  as  shall  help  us  to  live  better. 
We  are  to  use  the  mysteries  of  theology  as 
we  use  the  mysteries  of  nature,  realizing 
our  ignorance  but  making  the  most  of 
such  knowledge  as  we  have.  If,  beginning 
thus,  we  can  go  on  some  little  way  into 
the  farther  side,  very  well:  but  the  initial 
thing  is  to  begin. 

i.  The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  that 
the  Father  is  God,  the  Son  is  God,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  God;  and  yet  they  are  not  three 
gods  but  one  God. 

Thus  is  asserted  the  unity  of  God,  which 
is  essential  to  our  rational  understanding 
of  the  universe.  There  is  also  asserted  the 
complexity  of  God.  Simplicity  is  char- 
acteristic of  the  lower  orders  of  life,  com- 
plexity of  the  higher.  Thus  man,  made  in 
the  image  of  God,  and  in  that  sense  a 
revelation  of  God,  is  complexity  in  unity. 
We  distinguish  in  him  various  aspects, 
actions,  functions.  For  example,  with  his 
hands  he  builds  a  house,  with  his  mind  he 
composes  a  book,  with  his  soul  he  loves 
God  and  his  neighbor:  one  man  exerts 

125 


THE  CREED 


himself,  manifests  himself,  fulfills  himself, 
in  these  various  ways.  Beginning  with 
this  premise,  reason  proceeds  from  the 
known  to  the  unknown,  from  man  whom 
we  see  to  God  whom  we  see  not.  God  is 
one,  but  He  has  various  functions  and 
relates  Himself  to  us  in  different  ways. 
According  as  we  consider  one  or  another 
of  these  different  divine  activities,  we  call 
God  by  different  names. 

When  we  think  of  God  as  the  maker 
and  maintainer  of  the  universe,  of  the  race 
of  man,  and  of  our  own  life  in  the  midst  of 
all,  we  call  Him  Father. 

When  we  think  of  Him  as  making  His 
love  and  His  will  known  to  us  in  this  lan- 
guage of  a  human  life,  in  Jesus  Christ,  we 
call  Him  son. 

When  we  think  of  Him  as  living  in  all 
life,  thinking  in  all  thought,  century  by 
century  urging  mankind  on,  and  hour  by 
hour  speaking  in  our  own  conscience,  we 
call  Him  Spirit. 

Throughout,  we  have  in  mind  one  only 
God,  thought  of,  and  spoken  of,  in  these 
three  ways.  And  this  kind  of  theology 
is  expressed  in  the  catechism,  where  we 
say  that  in  the  Creed  we  chiefly  learn  to 
126 


THE  CREED 


believe  in  God  who  made  us,  and  is  thus 
called  the  Father,  in  God  who  redeemed 
us  and  is  called  the  Son,  and  in  God  who 
sanctifies  us  and  is  called  the  Holy  Ghost. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  technical 
theology  this  is  so  inadequate  a  statement 
that  it  is  easily  consistent  with  an  ancient 
heresy  called  Sabellianism.  But  as  re- 
gards the  needs  of  youth,  for  people  who 
are  not  scholars,  as  a  statement  to  begin 
with,  it  is  sufficient.  It  is  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity  on  the  nearer  side.  God  is 
defined  not  in  terms  of  being,  but  in  terms 
of  doing. 

Then  we  may  go  on,  following  the  phi- 
losophers and  theologians  as  far  as  we  can, 
and  declare  that  these  manifestations 
correspond  to  eternal  distinctions  in  the 
divine  nature.  But  here  we  begin  to 
enter  into  the  impenetrable  mystery  of 
the  farther  side. 

2.  The  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  is 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  at  the  same  time  God 
and  man. 

He  satisfies  the  human  desire  for  an 
embodiment  of  God.  The  Bible  says  that 
God  made  man  in  His  image,  and  the  his- 
tory of  religion  shows  man  in  all  ages 

127 


THE  CREED 


trying  to  understand  God  by  understand- 
ing himself.  "God  is  the  superlative  of 
man  the  positive."  Thus  in  the  old  time 
men  made  gods  of  heroes,  finding  in  ideal 
men  a  revelation  of  the  divine  nature. 
This  human  instinct  finds  fulfilment  in 
Jesus  Christ,  the  supreme  man,  the  mani- 
festation of  God. 

He  satisfies  also  the  divine  desire  for 
communication  with  man.  Inferring  the 
mind  of  God  from  the  mind  of  man,  we 
perceive  that  God  must  wish  to  make  Him- 
self known  to  us  His  children.  For  this 
purpose  He  will  speak  to  us  in  a  universal 
language.  And  this  He  will  find  not  in 
any  book,  not  in  the  words  of  any  tribal 
dialect  of  the  race,  but  in  a  human  life. 
Therein  every  man  hears  God  speaking  in 
his  own  tongue.  Truth  is  expressed  in  life, 
independent  of  all  grammars  and  dic- 
tionaries. We  understand  it  without 
translation,  as  we  understand  laughing  and 
crying,  in  all  lands.  The  omnipotence,  the 
omnipresence,  the  omniscience  of  God  will 
not  be  thus  revealed,  but  He  will  declare 
His  relation  to  us,  His  care  for  us,  His 
will  for  our  life.  This  He  did  when  He 
sent  His  Son. 
128 


THE  CREED 


The  humanity  of  Christ  is  a  matter  of 
observation:  it  is  evident  in  every  page  of 
the  gospels.  The  divinity  of  Christ  is  a 
matter  of  recognition:  like  the  perception 
of  excellence  and  truth  and  beauty  in  art, 
in  music,  in  letters  and  in  life.  It  is  apart 
from  argument,  and  cannot  be  proved  by 
citation  of  texts.  It  is  like  the  splendor 
of  great  music,  which  we  either  recognize 
or  fail  to  recognize;  it  thrills  us,  uplifts  us, 
gives  us  inexpressible  joy,  —  or  not.  If 
we  delight  in  it,  we  cannot  by  any  process 
of  reasoning  communicate  our  delight  to 
our  neighbor.  His  appreciation  must  grow 
in  his  own  soul.  Something  in  him  must 
go  out  to  the  music,  or  the  picture,  or  the 
book,  or  the  hero.  The  appreciation  may 
be  cultivated:  there  are  ways  of  living 
which  make  it  easy,  as  there  are  ways  of 
living  which  make  it  difficult.  Thus  the 
divinity  of  Christ  is  recognized.  Faith, 
in  this  sense,  is  as  independent  of  theology 
as  love  is  independent  of  psychology. 

The  idea  of  the  Incarnation  was  some- 
what hindered  by  an  exclusive  emphasis 
on  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  transcend- 
ence, according  to  which  God  dwells 
apart  and  remote,  and  must  "come  down" 

129 


THE  CREED 


to  unite  Himself  with  man.  It  is  helped 
by  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  imma- 
nence, according  to  which  it  is  God  in 
whom  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our 
being;  for  God,  thus  conceived  of,  "shines 
through."  It  is  like  the  shining  of  the  sun 
through  clouded  glass.  Here  the  pane  is 
thickly  frosted,  and  the  light  is  dim:  thus 
God  manifests  Himself  in  nature.  Here  the 
pane  is  thinly  frosted,  and  the  light  is 
clearer:  thus  God  manifests  Himself  in 
humanity,  especially  in  the  heroes  and  the 
saints.  But  here  is  a  single  place  where 
there  is  no  clouding  at  all;  we  look  through 
and  see  the  sun.  Even  so,  we  do  not  really 
see  the  sun;  even  with  the  best  telescope 
we  do  not  adequately  see  the  sun;  but  we 
get  the  best  sight  of  which  our  eyes  are 
capable.  Thus  we  look  through  Jesus 
Christ  and  see  God.  In  His  life,  His  char- 
acter, His  person,  we  make  our  utmost 
possible  approach  to  God. 

The  formula  of  this  nearer  side  of  the 
Incarnation  is  in  St.  Paul's  words,  "God 
was  in  Christ"  (II  Corinthians  5:19). 
God,  who  is  in  nature,  and  in  man,  and  in 
us,  was  in  Christ:  in  Him  uniquely  and 
supremely. 


130 


THE  CREED 


The  formula  of  the  farther  side  is  in 
St  John's  phrase,  "the  Word  was  God" 
(John  1:1).  The  divine  and  the  human 
meet  in  Him  as  the  spiritual  and  the 
material  meet  in  us,  in  a  union  which 
eludes  all  analysis. 

3.  The  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  is  that 
Jesus  Christ  died  for  our  sins. 

The  explanation  of  the  death  of  Christ 
has  varied  much.  At  first,  for  a  thousand 
years,  it  was  thought  that  He  died  to  pay 
to  the  devil  a  ransom  for  our  souls.  By 
reason  of  sin  the  devil  was  in  possession  of 
our  souls.  He  agreed  to  give  us  up,  if  in 
our  place  he  might  have  the  Son  of  God. 
Thus  Christ  died.  But  having  died,  the 
devil  lost  the  advantage  of  the  bargain  by 
His  resurrection;  he  released  us,  but  he 
could  not  retain  Him. 

This  doctrine  of  divine  deceit  contented 
a  world  which  was  mainly  occupied  with 
other  matters.  Then  St.  Anselm,  seeing 
that  our  moral  sense  was  affronted  by  the 
idea  that  God  would  cheat  even  the  devil, 
proposed  the  theory  that  the  death  of 
Christ  was  a  recompense  offered  to  God  for 
the  insult  of  our  sins.  Sin  being  against 
an  infinite  Being  must  be  punished  either 

131 


THE  CREED 


by  the  infinite  (= eternal)  suffering  of  us 
men,  or  by  the  finite  (  =  temporary)  suffer- 
ing of  an  infinite  Savior.  This  infinite 
Savior  was  Jesus  Christ. 

Each  of  these  doctrines  was  in  its  time  a 
part  of  orthodox  belief.  Even  to  question 
it  was  accounted  disloyalty  to  the  truth. 
Gradually,  however,  it  became  plain  that 
both  of  the  doctrines  made  such  a  dis- 
tinction between  God  the  Father  and  God 
the  Son  as  to  suggest  to  the  unreflecting 
mind  the  idea  of  two  Gods:  it  was  prac- 
tically a  kind  of  polytheism.  It  was  per- 
ceived, also,  that  the  theories  agreed  in 
considering  salvation  not  so  much  in  re- 
lation to  sin  as  in  relation  to  hell.  They 
both  missed  the  Bible  emphasis,  which 
is  laid  not  on  escape  from  punishment 
but  on  freedom  from  the  sins  which  if 
persisted  in  will  lead  to  punishment.  A 
third  defect  in  the  doctrines  was  found  in 
the  small  account  which  they  took  of  the 
will.  Sin  was  regarded  as  a  burden,  from 
which  we  might  be  freed  if  some  friend 
would  cut  the  cords  which  bind  it  to  our 
back.  But  in  reality  sin  is  a  disease:  it  is 
something  the  matter  with  us.  We  can- 
not be  rid  of  it  by  any  consultation  of 
132 


THE  CREED 


doctors,  but  by  the  co-operation  of  our 
desire.  Somehow,  we  must  be  appealed  to, 
awakened,  and  stirred  to  co-operative 
action. 

Moreover,  the  first  explanation  was  seen 
to  be  immoral,  God  being  represented  as 
defrauding  Satan.  And  the  second  ex- 
planation was  seen  to  be  artificial,  an  in- 
vention of  theologians,  a  theory  made  of 
school  logic,  without  regard  to  the  nature 
of  either  God  or  man. 

Thus  we  still  seek  a  satisfying  statement 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement,  under- 
standing that  it  must  take  account  both 
of  the  will  of  man  and  of  the  love  of  God. 
Meanwhile,  the  nearer  side  is  in  the  words 
with  which  St.  Paul  continued  his  state- 
ment of  the  Incarnation.  "God  was  in 
Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  him- 
self." The  death  of  Christ  is  here  rep- 
resented as  concerned  not  so  much  with 
Satan  or  with  God  as  with  us.  God  is  al- 
ways waiting  to  be  gracious.  He  is  in  no 
more  need  of  reconciliation  on  His  side 
than  was  the  father  of  the  Prodigal  Son. 
It  is  we  who  have  lost  our  relation  with 
Him,  and  must  be  brought  back.  We  must 
be  reconciled. 


133 


THE  CREED 


This  reconciliation  is  effected  by  the 
death  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  is  a  revelation 
of  the  dreadfulness  of  sin  and  of  the  love 
of  God.  In  the  sight  of  the  cross  we  begin 
to  realize  what  sin  is  and  how  it  hurts  not 
only  ourselves  and  our  neighbors  but  God 
Himself.  This  He  did,  the  Son  of  God,  to 
save  us  from  our  sins. 

The  farther  side  is  presented  dimly  in  the 
fifty- third  chapter  of  Isaiah  and  in  the 
description  of  the  agony  of  Jesus  in  the 
Garden  of  Gethsemane.  "By  His  stripes 
we  are  healed;"  "the  Lord  hath  laid  on 
Him  the  iniquity  of  us  all."  It  appears 
again  in  the  words,  "This  is  my  blood 
which  is  shed  for  you  and  for  many  for  the 
remission  of  sins."  The  "moral"  theory 
of  the  Atonement  is  not  sufficient  for  these 
great  and  mysterious  sayings.  But  as  far 
as  it  goes  it  is  clear  and  understandable. 
In  this  respect  at  least  it  is  true  that 
Christ  died  for  us:  that  by  His  death  we 
might  be  reconciled  to  God. 

rv 

Other  teachings  of  the  Creed  require  less 
explanation. 

i.  The  statement  that  Jesus  was  barn 

134 


THE  CREED 


of  the  Virgin  Mary  appears  in  the  Apostles' 
Creed  but  did  not  originally  appear  in  the 
Nicene  Creed;  that  is,  its  natural  place  is 
in  the  Creed  which  is  concerned  with  His 
humanity  rather  than  in  the  Creed  which 
is  concerned  with  His  divinity.  The 
Nicene  fathers  made  no  use  of  it  in  their 
great  argument.  In  this,  the  Creeds  follow 
the  gospels.  The  fact  of  the  Virgin  Birth 
is  in  the  gospels  of  St.  Matthew  and  St. 
Luke,  the  gospels  of  the  humanity  of 
Christ,  but  not  in  St.  John,  the  gospel  of 
His  divinity.  The  intention  of  the  state- 
ment is  to  assert  the  true  manhood  of  our 
Lord,  against  those  who  were  declaring 
that  He  was  human  only  in  appearance. 
The  phrase,  "the  Virgin  Mary,"  is  not  a 
proposition  but  a  title.  The  question  of  the 
virgin  birth  was  not  under  discussion. 

It  is  at  present  under  discussion.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  is  incapable  either  of 
proof  or  of  disproof :  it  can  never  be  settled 
to  the  satisfaction  of  historians.  As  a 
matter  of  scripture,  the  natural  birth  seems 
to  some  commentators  to  be  asserted  in 
the  genealogies  which  conduct  us  to  Joseph; 
the  supernatural  birth  is  plainly  asserted 
in  the  narratives  which  accompany  them. 

135 


THE  CREED 


As  a  matter  of  religion,  it  is  one  of  the 
least  profitable  of  all  themes.  It  is  not 
useful  in  theology:  no  doctrine  depends 
upon  it;  the  fact  of  the  Incarnation  is 
independent  of  the  method  of  the  Incar- 
nation. And  it  is  not  useful  in  life.  It 
cannot  well  be  preached  about.  Historic- 
ally the  stressing  of  it  has  led  to  an  un- 
wholesome depreciation  of  the  sacrament 
of  marriage,  and  to  a  practice  of  Mariolatry 
which  the  gospels  make  absurd. 

Between  two  interpretations,  natural 
and  supernatural,  the  church  affirms 
the  second.  It  expresses  that  estima- 
tion of  the  person  of  Christ  which  or- 
dinary birth  seems  inadequate  to  ex- 
press. It  fitly  begins  the  story  of  the  life 
of  Christ  with  glory  as  the  Ascension  ends 
it  with  glory. 

2.  The  statement  that  Jesus  descended 
into  hell  is  explained  in  the  Prayer  Book  in 
the  margin  of  the  Creed.  It  is  a  part  of 
the  declaration  that  He  truly  died:  His 
body  was  buried,  and  His  soul  descended 
into  the  place  of  departed  spirits.  The 
word  is  Jiades,  the  other  world  of  life,  as 
distinguished  from  gehenna,  the  other 
world  of  death. 
136 


THE  CREED 


3.  The  statement  that  He  rose  again 
from  the  dead  is  made  difficult  by  the  two 
accounts  which  are  given  in  the  gospels. 
In  part,  the  records  show  a  physical  con- 
dition: He  eats,  is  touched,  and  exhibits 
the  marks  of  crucifixion.  In  part,  the 
records  show  a  spiritual  condition:  He  is 
unrecognized  till  He  chooses  to  be  known, 
He  vanishes  away.  St.  Paul  seems  to  per- 
ceive no  difference  between  the  Lord  as 
the  apostles  saw  Him  on  the  earth  and  the 
Lord  as  he  saw  Him  in  the  sky.  All  the 
accounts  agree  that  He  was  seen  alive  after 
His  death;  and  that  is  the  one  essential 
fact.  Very  likely,  the  reality  was  incap- 
able of  translation  into  terms  of  our  ex- 
perience. The  details  do  not  greatly 
matter.  They  are  sought  by  curiosity 
rather  than  by  faith.  The  heart  of  it  all 
is  the  truth  that  He  conquered  death  and 
brought  fife  and  immortality  to  light. 

4.  As  for  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  it 
is  interpreted  in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of 
St.  Paul's  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians: 
"Thou  sowest  not  that  body  which  shall 
be,  but  God  giveth  it  a  body  as  it  hath 
pleased  him."  The  difference  between 
the  natural  and  the  spiritual  body  is  that 

137 


THE  CREED 


one  is  adapted  to  the  conditions  of  this 
natural  world,  while  the  other  will  be 
adapted  to  the  conditions  of  the  other, 
spiritual  world.  What  those  conditions 
will  be,  nobody  knows,  nor  can  know. 
The  idea  of  the  article  in  the  Creed  is  to 
assert  the  continuance  of  personal  identity. 
Of  that,  the  body  is  a  symbol.  On  we  go 
after  death,  not  as  in  the  Buddhist  belief, 
to  be  absorbed  in  the  soul  of  the  universe, 
"as  the  drop  falls  into  the  crystal  sea," 
but  with  our  own  individuality  preserved, 
to  be  recognized,  and  to  reap  whatever  we 
have  sown. 


138 


THE  CHURCH 


THE  CHURCH 


I.   The  Description  of  the  Church 

1.  "Holy" 

2.  "Catholic" 

(1)  A  missionary  church 

(2)  An  inclusive  church 

3.  "One":  unity  of  the  spirit 

4.  "Apostolic":  unity  of  organization 
II.   The  History  of  the  Church 

1.  The  period  of  construction 

(1)  Primitive  officers 

(2)  Two  theories:  direction,  in- 

spiration 

2.  The  period  of  addition 

(1)  Church  extension 

(2)  Two  invasions:  barbarians 

(West)  Moslems  (East) 

3.  The  period  of  subtraction 

(1)  In  Germany:  pope  and  bishops 

(2)  In  England:  pope  only 

III.   The  Position  of  the  Episcopal  Church 

1.  Between  Catholics  and  Protestants 

2.  The  apostolic  succession 

3.  The  argument  of  efficiency 

(1)  for  direction 

(2)  for  inclusion 

141 


VIII 


THE  CHURCH 
I 

The  Church  is  described  in  the  creeds  by- 
four  adjectives.  It  is  called  one,  holy, 
Catholic  and  apostolic. 

1 .  Two  of  these  refer  to  the  purpose  and 
work  of  the  Church.  The  Church  is  holy, 
i.  e.,  the  purpose  for  which  it  exists  is  to 
make  people  better.  This  is  the  intention 
of  the  services  and  the  sacraments.  By 
this  the  value  of  every  detail  is  to  be 
measured.  The  test  of  the  Church  is  the 
conduct  of  the  people. 

2.  And  the  Church  is  Catholic  (=  univer- 
sal). It  is  meant  to  spread  to  all  lands,  and 
to  include  all  kinds  of  good  people. 

It  is  thus  a  missionary  church.  We  are 
not  content  to  keep  the  privileges  and 
blessings  of  religion  to  ourselves.  We 
have  a  truth  about  God  which  is  essential 
to  happiness,  the  doctrine  of  the  father- 
hood of  God.   It  is  essential  to  happiness 


142 


THE  CHURCH 


not  only  or  chiefly  in  a  future  state,  but 
now  and  here,  for  it  changes  for  those  who 
accept  it  the  whole  complexion  of  the 
world.  It  puts  divine  love  in  the  place  of 
divine  wrath,  and  faith  in  the  place  of 
fear.  We  can  no  more  keep  it  to  ourselves 
than  a  good  physician  can  keep  for  his 
own  patients  a  medicine  which  all  people 
need.  This  gospel  of  Christ  we  would 
contribute  to  all  lands  and  religions,  not 
by  way  of  destruction  so  much  as  by  way 
of  addition. 

It  is  also  an  inclusive  church,  having 
hospitable  room  for  all  religious  tempera- 
ments. It  includes  those  whose  religion 
is  objective,  who  look  up  towards  God, 
whose  characteristic  word  is  adoration; 
they  care  greatly  for  the  service,  especially 
in  its  sacramental  forms,  and  attach  such 
a  high  value  to  the  institution  —  i.  e.,  to 
the  orderly  arrangements  of  the  Christian 
society  —  that  they  are  called  "high" 
churchmen. 

It  includes  those  whose  religion  is  sub- 
jective, who  look  in  towards  their  own 
souls,  whose  characteristic  word  is  salva- 
tion; they  care  greatly  for  the  sermon,  they 
desire  to  approach  God  immediately  and 


143 


THE  CHURCH 


individually,  and  attach  so  much  less  value 
to  the  institution  that  they  are  called 
"low"  churchmen. 

It  includes  those,  high  or  low,  whose 
characteristic  word  is  ministration,  who 
are  intent  upon  bringing  the  truth  of  reli- 
gion into  accord  with  all  truth,  and  the 
life  of  religion  into  contact  with  all  life. 
They  look  up  towards  God,  or  in  towards 
their  own  souls,  but  chiefly  out  towards 
their  neighbors.  They  are  called  "broad" 
churchmen. 

It  sometimes  happens  that  these  dif- 
ferent temperaments  have  difficulty  in 
understanding  one  another.  To  the  high 
churchman  or  the  low  churchman  or  the 
broad  churchman,  it  may  seem  that  his 
kind  of  religion  is  the  only  valid  kind;  he 
may  even  desire  in  his  zeal  to  put  his 
neighbor  out.  He  may  wish  that  the  high 
churchmen  would  become  Roman  Cath- 
olics; or  the  low  churchmen,  Methodists; 
or  the  broad  churchmen,  Unitarians.  But 
any  such  expulsion  would  rob  the  Church 
not  only  of  its  catholicity,  but  of  a  part  of 
its  appeal.  The  peculiar  strength  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  is  in  its  frank  recogni- 
tion of  the  fact  of  difference,  and  in  the 
144 


THE  CHURCH 


resulting  inclusiveness  which  brings  to- 
gether in  the  Church  people  who  differ 
more  among  themselves  than  they  differ 
with  their  neighbors.  It  is  according  to 
the  genius  of  the  church  that  churchmen 
may  be  high  or  low  or  broad  as  they  will. 
It  is  against  the  genius  of  the  Church  that 
any  of  them  should  be  sectarian  or  narrow. 

Two  of  the  distinctive  adjectives  refer 
to  the  nature  and  history  of  the  church. 

3.  The  church  is  one,  in  the  unity  of  the 
spirit.  It  includes  all  baptized  persons, 
for  all  such  have  been  made  members  of 
it.  Nobody  is  made  by  baptism  a  Pres- 
byterian or  a  Lutheran  or  a  Roman  Cath- 
olic or  an  Episcopalian.  By  baptism  we 
are  admitted  to  membership  in  the  univer- 
sal church.  The  "blessed  company  of 
all  faithful  people "  includes  all  the  de- 
nominational differences.  We  have  one 
Father,  one  Saviour,  one  ideal  of  life,  one 
hope  of  heaven. 

4.  But  the  church  is  also  apostolic,  i.  e., 
there  is  not  only  a  unity  of  the  spirit  but  a 
unity  of  the  body.  The  church  is  not  only 
an  influence  but  an  institution.  Its  sym- 
bols are  the  leaven  and  the  seed,  but  also 
the  field  with  tares  among  the  wheat,  and 

145 


THE  CHURCH 


the  net  with  fishes  good  and  bad.  The  net 
and  the  field  indicate  a  bond  of  union 
which  is  more  tangible  than  character 
or  faith.  They  point  to  a  visible  church, 
to  an  organized  Christian  society. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Church  is  such  a 
society,  held  together  not  only  by  spiritual 
agreement  but  by  a  settled  administration 
and  having  a  significant  history. 

II 

The  history  of  the  Church  began  with  a 
period  of  construction. 

i.  Our  Lord  appointed  various  persons 
to  serve  as  officers  or  ministers.  Some 
were  for  a  temporary  work,  as  the  Seventy; 
some,  like  the  Twelve,  were  for  a  continu- 
ous service.  The  men  of  longer  tenure, 
who  were  to  serve  not  for  a  campaign  but 
for  a  lifetime,  appointed  their  successors, 
and  others.  At  the  same  time,  there  were 
apostles,  like  St.  Paul,  who  derived  their 
appointment  not  from  the  Twelve  but  by 
direct  summons  from  heaven,  God  speak- 
ing in  their  souls. 

Thus  appeared,  at  the  very  beginning, 
some  such  distinction  of  ministers  as 
exists  at  present:  some  ministers  whose 
146 


THE  CHURCH 


ordination  was  canonically  "regular," 
others  whose  ordination  was  canonically 
" irregular."  They  represent,  in  a  way,  the 
Old  Testament  difference  between  the 
priest  and  the  prophet:  the  priest,  accord- 
ing to  the  order  of  Aaron,  in  the  "succes- 
sion"; and  the  prophet,  according  to  the 
order  of  Melchizedek,  out  of  the  prescribed 
succession. 

These  officers  appointed  others  for  nec- 
essary duties.  First,  the  Seven,  often 
called  deacons,  to  do  social  service.  Then 
the  Presidents  (using  the  name  which 
Justin  Martyr  was  using  about  A.  D.  150). 
Sometimes  these  presiding  officers  were 
called  presbyters,  /.  e.,  elders.  Sometimes 
they  were  called  bishops;  the  Greek  word 
is  episcopoi,  meaning  overseers.  Beside 
these,  others  appear  in  lists  given  by 
St.  Paul:  prophets,  evangelists,  pastors, 
teachers  (Ephesians  4:11). 

There  was  as  yet  no  clear  vision  of  a  long 
future.  The  common  expectation  was 
that  the  world  would  speedily  come  to  an 
end.  The  Christians  met  the  daily  need 
as  best  they  could,  providing  for  the  groups 
of  believers  such  organization  as  seemed 
likely  to  be  effective.    As  time  went  on, 

147 


THE  CHURCH 


and  difficulties  arose  —  some  in  the  form 
of  persecution,  some  in  the  form  of  her- 
esy —  it  was  necessary  to  hold  the  faithful 
together,  and  for  this  purpose  the  position 
of  the  local  minister  was  magnified.  St. 
Ignatius  was  very  emphatic  about  it. 
"Do  nothing,"  he  said,  "without  the 
bishop."  Even  so,  the  conditions  were 
not  such  as  to  suggest  a  permanent 
policy. 

There  are  two  tJieories  concerning  the 
growth  of  the  Church,  as  there  are  two 
theories  concerning  the  making  of  the 
world.  As  to  the  world,  some  think  that 
it  was  built  like  a  house,  according  to 
detailed  divine  specifications;  others  think 
that  it  grew  like  a  tree,  beginning  with  the 
divine  provision  of  matter  and  of  life  and 
proceeding  according  to  the  action  and 
reaction  of  the  one  upon  the  other. 

One  theory  about  the  Church  is  that 
our  Lord  arranged  it  all,  perhaps  in  those 
forty  days  after  the  resurrection  when  He 
spoke  with  His  disciples  concerning  the 
kingdom  of  heaven:  He  told  them  what 
to  do,  put  in  form  the  orders  of  the  min- 
istry, instructed  them  in  the  administra- 
tion of  the  sacraments;  He  Himself  in- 
148 


THE  CHURCH 


stituted  and  organized  the  Church.  To 
this  theory,  the  early  chapters  of  the  Acts 
present  serious  difficulties.  The  apostles 
seem  to  have  no  idea  that  they  are  to 
start  a  church.  They  found  a  fraternity, 
as  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  did,  but  it  is  within 
the  Jewish  Church  as  his  was  within  the 
Mediaeval  Church.  They  have  no  idea  of 
departing  from  that  church  in  which  they 
had  been  brought  up,  whose  ministry  was 
in  succession  from  Aaron,  and  whose 
foundation  was  in  the  Bible.  They  did 
eventually  depart  from  it  but  only  when 
they  were  stoned  out,  in  company  with 
St.  Stephen. 

Their  behavior  suggests  the  other  theory, 
which  is  that  our  Lord  gave  the  apostles 
not  direction  but  inspiration.  He  imparted 
to  them  His  spirit.  He  gave  the  Church 
not  form  but  life.  The  Church  grew.  The 
apostles  administered  the  increasing  society 
by  meeting  successive  emergencies  and 
opportunities,  the  Lord  working  with 
them.  Instead  of  looking  back  to  consult 
a  prescribed  order  given  to  them,  they 
believed  in  a  continuing  divine  presence, 
and  in  an  unfailing  leadership  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.    They  did  what  seemed  good,  as 

149 


THE  CHURCH 


they  said  in  a  significant  phrase,  "to  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  us." 

Whichever  of  these  theories  may  seem 
the  more  reasonable  to  us,  it  is  plain  that 
by  the  middle  of  the  third  century,  at  the 
latest,  the  Christian  society  had  decided 
that  the  best  form  of  organization  was  that 
which  we  call  episcopal.  There  is  no 
reasonable  doubt  but  that  in  St.  Cyprian's 
day  (about  A.  D.  250),  whatever  presbyte- 
rian  or  congregational  or  papal  experi- 
ments may  have  been  tried,  the  Church 
was  governed,  as  the  Episcopal  Church  is 
still  governed,  by  bishops,  priests  and 
deacons.  The  period  of  construction  had 
brought  the  Church  to  that  result. 

2.  Then  came  a  period  of  addition. 

When  Constantine,  having  been  con- 
verted to  the  Christian  religion,  became 
the  sole  ruler  of  the  Roman  Empire,  the 
Church  increased  greatly.  The  bishop  who 
had  sometimes  been  the  pastor  of  a  little 
flock,  among  whom  he  lived  as  the  min- 
isters of  colonial  New  England  dwelt 
among  their  people,  now  had  under  him 
many  presbyters  and  deacons.  The  parish, 
which  had  grown  into  the  diocese,  widened 
out  into  the  archdiocese.   To  the  bishop, 


150 


THE  CHURCH 


who  had  been  the  highest  officer  of  the 
church,  with  other  bishops  his  equals  but 
none  his  superior,  was  added  the  arch- 
bishop, also  called  patriarch,  also  called 
pope.  The  establishment  of  Christianity 
as  the  religion  of  the  empire  magnified  the 
importance  of  this  new  method  of  eccle- 
siastical administration. 

The  method  had  been  suggested  by  the 
situation.  The  archbishop,  patriarch, 
pope,  had  been  appointed  as  naturally  as 
the  deacons  were  appointed  at  the  begin- 
ning, to  meet  a  need.  The  missionary 
policy  of  the  early  church  selected  the 
larger  cities  as  centres  of  activity.  Out  of 
them,  the  Christians  went  to  preach  the 
gospel  in  the  country.  They  planted  lesser 
churches  which  were  missions  of  the  greater 
church.  The  same  process  resulted  in 
lesser  dioceses  around  the  diocese  which 
contained  a  city  of  more  than  ordinary 
importance.  The  bishop  of  the  central 
diocese  exercised  a  natural  authority  over 
the  bishops  of  the  dependent  dioceses.  In 
the  new  situation,  with  its  new  problems 
demanding  solution,  he  was  needed  as  a 
leader.  Thus  it  came  about  that  certain 
bishops  —  of  Alexandria,  of  Carthage,  of 

151 


THE  CHURCH 


Rome,  of  Milan,  of  Antioch,  of  Constan- 
tinople, —  stood  head  and  shoulders  above 
their  brethren.  Most  of  these  popes  were 
in  the  East,  where  the  Church  was  strong; 
a  smaller  number  in  the  West,  which  had 
been  missionary  ground. 

Then  came  two  catastrophes,  one  in  the 
East,  the  other  in  the  West. 

Early  in  the  fifth  century  the  barbarians 
descended  in  force  upon  the  civilization  of 
the  West.  They  destroyed  the  Western 
Empire.  In  476  they  deposed  the  last  of 
the  emperors.  So  many  of  them,  however, 
had  been  converted  to  Christianity  before 
this  final  invasion,  that  they  respected  the 
Church.  Their  coming  strengthened  the 
position  of  the  Archbishop  of  Rome.  He 
established  missions  among  them,  in  Gaul, 
in  Germany,  in  Britain  (A.  D.  597).  He 
so  succeeded  in  allying  himself  with  them 
that  on  Christmas  Day,  A.  D.  800,  he 
crowned  Charlemagne.  It  is  a  conve- 
nient date  to  remember  as  the  time  of  the 
appearance  of  the  papacy  as  we  know  it. 

In  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century 
the  Mohammedans  out  of  Arabia  invaded 
the  East.  They  destroyed  the  Eastern 
Empire.   They  took  into  their  possession 

152 


THE  CHURCH 


the  lands  in  which  our  Lord  and  the 
apostles  had  lived  and  the  cities  in  which 
the  great  councils  had  been  held.  Jeru- 
salem, Antioch,  Alexandria  fell  under  their 
rule,  and  so  continue  to  this  day.  The 
archbishops  of  these  places  lost  their 
ancient  importance.  Christianity  con- 
tinued, but  under  such  disadvantages  that 
the  Russian  Church  to-day,  while  properly 
under  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  is 
actually  governed  by  the  Holy  Synod,  be- 
cause the  patriarch  is  under  the  power  of 
the  Sultan. 

Thus  in  all  the  Christian  world  there  was 
only  one  strong  pope,  the  pope  of  Rome. 
His  position  had  been  emphasized  by  the 
removal  of  the  throne  of  the  empire  from 
Rome  to  Constantinople.  His  influence 
and  rule  were  so  extended  by  the  politi- 
cal situation  that  he  became  the  head 
of  Western  Christianity.  Theologians 
found  texts  for  him  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment: they  said  that  he  was  the  successor 
of  St.  Peter  to  whom  Christ  had  said  "On 
this  rock  will  I  found  my  church."  But 
his  power  came  first,  and  the  application  of 
the  texts  afterwards.  By  historical  proc- 
esses, in  the  natural  course  of  events,  he 

iS3 


THE  CHURCH 


took  a  place  which  made  him  archbishop  of 
archbishops.  Thus  the  period  of  addition, 
which  had  already  set  certain  bishops  over 
their  brother  bishops,  set  the  pope  of  Rome 
over  all  the  bishops  of  the  West.  He  was 
a  new  officer,  of  whom  the  early  Church  had 
known  nothing. 

3.  There  followed  a  period  of  subtraction. 

The  power  of  the  pope  was  at  first  be- 
neficent. He  centralized  the  life  of  the 
Church,  and  made  it  strong  to  endure  the 
storms  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Over  against 
the  material  reign  of  emperors  and  kings 
he  upheld  the  kingdom  of  God.  He  stood 
for  righteousness. 

Then  he  encountered  the  temptations 
which  accompany  power  and  wealth  and 
dominion,  and  fell  into  the  sins  of  ambition 
and  avarice.  He  made  the  Church  a  king- 
dom of  this  world,  existing  not  for  the  gen- 
eral welfare  but  for  its  own  gain.  He  be- 
came a  tyrant.  He  stood  in  the  way  of 
national,  and  intellectual,  and  spiritual 
progress. 

Accordingly,  there  began  in  Germany  a 
process  of  subtraction.  Luther,  for  the 
good  of  religion,  subtracted  from  Christian- 
ity both  the  pope  and  the  bishops.  For  on 

154 


THE  CHURCH 


the  continent  of  Europe  the  bishops  sup- 
ported the  pope  against  the  reformation  of 
the  Church.  This  radical  subtraction,  thus 
including  officers  who  had  been  a  part  of 
the  ecclesiastical  administration  from  the 
beginning,  involved  the  formation  of  new 
societies.  Luther,  Calvin,  Knox,  and  their 
followers  went  out  of  the  historic  organiza- 
tion. Compelled  by  their  consciences  to 
make  a  choice  between  the  Church  and  the 
truth,  they  chose  the  truth.  They  followed 
the  example  of  the  apostles  who  went  out 
of  the  Jewish  Church,  saying,  Thus  it  seems 
good  to  the  Holy  Ghost  and  us.  In  this 
manner  Protestantism  began. 

In  England,  the  situation  was  somewhat 
different.  The  reformation  in  that  coun- 
try was  at  the  same  time  embarrassed  and 
facilitated  by  a  quarrel  between  the  pope 
and  the  king.  It  was  embarrassed  by  the 
nature  of  the  quarrel,  which  had  its  rise 
in  the  desire  of  Henry  VIII  to  divorce  his 
wife  that  he  might  marry  one  of  the  maids 
of  honor  of  his  court.  But  it  was  facili- 
tated by  the  co-operation  of  the  king  with 
the  Church  in  the  expulsion  of  the  pope. 
Henry  was  never  a  Protestant,  beyond  the 
limits  of  his  personal  quarrel.    The  true 

155 


THE  CHURCH 


reformation  of  the  Church  in  England  be- 
gan under  King  Edward  and  was  carried 
forward  under  Queen  Elizabeth.  Henry, 
however,  did  effect  the  subtraction  of  the 
pope.  He  made  it  easy  for  the  Church  to 
proceed  to  do  regularly  and  under  the  rule 
of  the  bishops  what  Luther  had  been 
obliged  to  do  irregularly  against  the  opposi- 
tion of  the  bishops.  In  England,  accord- 
ingly, the  subtraction  stopped  with  the 
pope.  The  bishops  continued.  The  result 
was  that  while  the  German  reformers,  ex- 
pelling the  bishops,  went  out  of  the  historic 
organization,  the  English  reformers,  retain- 
ing the  bishops,  stayed  in. 

The  Church  had  had  a  long  life  in  Eng- 
land before  the  pope  was  ever  heard  of. 
Christianity  was  probably  planted  in  that 
island  by  soldiers  of  the  Roman  legions.  A 
council  summoned  by  Constantine  to  meet 
at  Aries,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Rhone, 
in  314,  was  attended  by  three  British 
bishops  who  signed  their  names  to  the  de- 
cisions. Their  dioceses  were  London,  York 
and  (probably)  Lincoln.  It  was  in  the 
course  of  that  century  that  the  Roman 
troops  were  withdrawn  from  Britain  and 
the  barbarians  came  in,  —  the  English 

156 


THE  CHURCH 

(Angles),  the  Saxons  and  other  pagan  tribes. 
The  civilization  and  Christianity  of  Britain 
were  driven  into  the  mountains  of  Wales. 
Thus  the  Church  in  the  island  was  separated 
from  the  Church  on  the  mainland.  In  563, 
St.  Columba  began  the  conversion  of  the 
pagans  in  the  north;  in  597,  St.  Augustine 
(called  "of  Canterbury")  began  their  con- 
version in  the  south.  Columba  represented 
the  British  Church;  Augustine  was  sent  on 
his  mission  by  the  pope.  In  664,  at  the 
Council  of  Whitby,  representatives  of  the 
two  missions,  British  and  Roman,  agreed 
to  follow  the  church  customs  of  the  conti- 
nent rather  than  the  local  customs  of  the 
island.  The  points  under  debate  con- 
cerned the  date  of  Easter,  and  other  mat- 
ters of  slight  importance,  but  the  decision 
brought  the  Church  in  England  under  the 
rule  of  Rome.  Thus  it  continued,  the 
papacy  gradually  changing  from  an  in- 
fluence to  an  institution,  until  the  definite 
break  with  Rome  by  the  act  of  Henry  in 
i53i- 

When,  therefore,  the  organized  Chris- 
tianity of  England  subtracted  the  pope,  the 
church  returned  to  its  primitive  condition.  It 
had  lived  six  hundred  years  without  the 

157 


THE  CHURCH 


pope;  it  had  then  lived  nine  hundred  years 
with  the  pope;  it  has  since  lived  nearly  five 
hundred  years  without  him,  as  before. 
Here,  for  illustration,  is  a  church  wall ;  after 
a  good  while,  ivy  is  planted  beside  it,  and 
grows  so  thickly  over  it  that  not  a  stone  is 
visible;  but  this  is  found  to  be  bad  for  the 
wall,  and  the  ivy  is  cut  off.  Thus  over  the 
Church  of  England  grew  the  ivy  of  the 
papal  domination.  In  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury it  was  removed.  People  used  to  say, 
when  such  things  were  matters  of  contro- 
versy, Where  was  your  church  before 
Henry  VIII?  It  was  like  asking,  Where 
was  the  wall  before  the  gardener  cut  the 
ivy?  It  was  just  where  it  has  always  been. 

Ill 

i.  Thus  stands  the  Episcopal  Church, 
daughter  of  the  Church  of  England,  be- 
tween the  Roman  Catholics  and  the  Prot- 
estants. The  Roman  Catholic  Church  con- 
tinues (like  the  Russian  and  other  eastern 
churches)  in  the  ancient  Christian  society, 
to  whose  order  it  has  added  the  pope  and 
various  objectionable  doctrines.  The  Prot- 
estant Churches  are  modern  Christian 
societies,  separated  from  the  ancient  order 

158 


THE  CHURCH 


by  their  subtraction  of  the  bishop.  The 
Episcopal  Church  is  Catholic  in  organi- 
zation, continuing  in  the  ancient  order;  it  is 
Protestant  in  spirit,  believing  in  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  individual,  as  well  as  in 
the  value  of  the  institution,  and  exalting 
the  freedom  of  the  truth  over  submission 
to  authority. 

2.  The  continuance  of  the  Church  in  the 
historic  society  is  called  the  apostolic  suc- 
cession. It  is  held  by  some  that  outside  of 
this  succession  a  ministry  is  not  a  valid 
ministry,  and  the  sacraments  thus  admin- 
istered are  not  valid  sacraments.  It  is  held 
by  others  that  the  difference  in  ministry 
and  sacraments  is  properly  stated  not  in 
terms  of  validity  but  in  terms  of  regularity. 
The  evidence  of  validity  is  the  blessing  of 
God ;  and  this,  it  is  plain,  is  altogether  inde- 
pendent of  ecclesiastical  boundaries.  The 
test  of  regularity  is  the  canon  law;  accord- 
ing to  this  test  a  ministry  which  is  not 
episcopally  ordained  is  irregular. 

3.  The  convincing  argument  for  any  par- 
ticular form  of  organization  is  not  its  an- 
tiquity but  its  efficiency.  The  modern  man 
is  indifferent  to  the  claim  that  an  order  of 
procedure  is  very  old.    His  determining 

159 


THE  CHURCH 

question  is,  How  does  it  work?  A  family 
may  take  pride  in  its  splendid  past;  a 
church  may  find  satisfaction  in  its  long 
descent,  its  ancestral  lines  of  saints  and 
heroes  extending  back  to  the  apostles.  But 
the  family  and  the  church  alike  are  es- 
teemed to-day  according  to  their  contribu- 
tion to  our  present  life. 

The  value  of  the  episcopal  administra- 
tion is  in  its  working  qualities  of  direction 
and  inclusion. 

The  function  of  the  bishop  is  that  of 
general  direction.  The  ministers  are  oc- 
cupied, each  with  the  affairs  of  his  own 
parish;  a  chief  minister  is  needed  to  at- 
tend to  the  large  common  interests,  to  co- 
ordinate the  parishes  and  bring  to  religion 
the  reinforcement  of  their  united  action, 
to  make  long  plans  and  carry  them  into 
effect.  He  is  like  a  general  manager  in 
business. 

The  bishop  makes  possible  that  character 
of  inclusion  which  is  so  marked  in  the 
Episcopal  Church.  It  is  largely  by  loyalty 
to  him  that  the  very  different  people  who 
compose  the  church  live  happily  together. 
He  unites  them  as  the  parents  unite  the 
children  in  the  household.  The  sons  and 
1 60 


THE  CHURCH 


daughters  go  their  several  ways,  having 
their  individual  tastes,  preferences  and 
interests,  and  sometimes  having  little  in 
common  except  their  family  life.  The  high 
churchmen,  the  low  churchmen,  the  broad 
churchmen,  are  held  together  in  their  diver- 
sity by  a  similar  relation  of  which  the 
bishop  is  the  symbol.  Their  union  con- 
sists not  in  assent  to  all  the  details  of  a 
theological  agreement,  and  not  in  obedience 
to  a  uniform  manner  of  worship,  but  in 
their  membership  in  the  family  of  the 
church. 

In  this  respect,  the  Episcopal  Church  re- 
veals the  possibility  of  a  united  Christen- 
dom; presenting  itself  as  an  example  of  a 
realization  of  the  ideal  of  unity  in  diversity. 
Placed  midway  between  the  two  great 
Christian  companies,  Roman  Catholic  and 
Protestant,  akin  to  each  and  sympathetic 
with  each,  it  is  a  meeting  ground  wherein  the 
reconciliation  of  differences  may  be  brought 
about.  In  the  meantime,  for  the  sake  of 
such  a  service,  it  avoids  identifying  itself 
exclusively  with  either  side.  For  this  rea- 
son it  is  indisposed  toward  such  superficial 
unity  as  is  represented  by  "exchange  of 
pulpits."  Without  questioning  the  validity 

161 


THE  CHURCH 

of  other  ministries,  it  maintains  the  im- 
portance of  the  difference  between  the  an- 
cient society  and  the  modern  societies,  and 
between  regular  and  irregular  ordination. 


162 


PRAYER 


PRAYER 


I.   The  Problem  of  Prayer:  Intellectual 
Difficulties 

1.  Can  God  answer  prayer? 

(1)  The  apparent  hindrance  of  law 

(2)  The  interpretive  evidence  of  will 

2.  Will  God  answer  prayer? 

(1)  On  account  of  our  indolence 

(2)  On  account  of  our  ignorance 

3.  Prayer  as  a  means  of  grace,  and  as  an 

expression  of  faith 
II.   The  Problem  of  Prayer:  Moral  Diffi- 
culties 

1.  Familiarity 

2.  Secularity 

3.  Infirmity 

III.  The  Practice  of  Prayer 

1.  In  private 

2.  In  public 

IV.  The  Lord's  Prayer 

1.  Invocation 

2.  Petition 

3.  Ascription 

4.  The  Lord's  Prayer  in  translation  and 

in  explanation 


IX 


PRAYER 

The  need  of  prayer  appears  in  the 
example  of  our  Lord.  He  felt  it  to  be 
necessary  in  His  own  spiritual  life  —  He 
who  lived  always  in  the  consciousness  of 
the  divine  presence.  It  is  plain  that  it 
must  be  far  more  necessary  for  us. 

The  importance  of  prayer  appears  in 
His  teaching.  He  often  spoke  of  it,  as  in 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  He  related 
it  not  to  piety  only  but  to  performance, 
giving  it  an  essential  place  not  only  in 
sanctification  but  in  service.  When  the 
apostles  failed  in  one  of  their  endeavors  to 
do  good,  He  told  them  that  it  was  for 
lack  of  prayer  (Matthew  17:21). 

Thus  He  gave  His  divine  sanction  to 
a  universal  human  instinct.  Man  is  a 
praying  animal.  There  is  that  within  us 
by  nature  which  makes  us  hold  up  our 
hands  to  the  sky  and  ask  aid  from  the 
invisible  world. 


166 


PRAYER 


Prayer  may  be  considered  as  petition  or 
as  communion.  Under  either  aspect  it 
has  its  difficulties.  In  the  way  of  petition 
the  difficulties  are  mainly  intellectual;  in 
the  way  of  communion,  they  are  mainly 
spiritual. 

I 

The  intellectual  difficulties  which  hinder 
prayer  as  petition  gather  about  two  ques- 
tions, Can  God  answer  prayer?  and  Will 
God  answer  prayer? 

i.  Can  God  answer  prayer,  because  we 
live  in  a  world  of  law.  We  are  aware, 
much  more  than  our  ancestors  were  aware, 
of  a  constant  sequence  of  cause  and  effect. 
Every  effect  proceeds  from  a  cause,  which 
in  its  turn  is  the  effect  of  an  antecedent 
cause,  and  so  on  back.  Growth,  which 
men  of  science  call  evolution,  is  the  order 
of  the  universe. 

In  the  first  enthusiasm  of  the  theory  of 
evolution,  there  were  those  who  said  that 
all  effects  are  so  enfolded  in  their  causes 
that  a  sufficiently  intelligent  mind  study- 
ing the  original  molecules  which  were  the 
seeds  of  the  world  could  have  foreseen 
what  figure  would  be  touched  by  the 

167 


PRAYER 


mercury  of  the  thermometer  at  any  given 
hour,  of  any  given  day,  in  any  given  place, 
even  to  this  present  moment.  All  was 
fixed,  determined,  foreordained,  predes- 
tinated. They  said,  accordingly,  that  to 
pray  for  that  which  was  not  already 
written,  as  Mohammedans  say,  "on  the 
iron  leaf,"  was  to  pray  for  a  whole  new 
universe.  In  order  to  grant  a  prayer  for 
rain  when  the  succession  of  cause  and 
effect  did  not  inevitably  lead  to  rain  it 
would  be  necessary  to  reconstruct  the 
order  of  events  from  the  beginning. 

This  rigor  of  logic  has  been  somewhat 
abated.  To-day,  the  evolutionary  theory  of 
Darwin  is  modified  by  the  evolutionary 
theory  of  Bergson.  "Creative  evolution," 
in  Bergson's  phrase,  sees  the  world  still  in 
process,  with  new  and  unexpected  combina- 
tions working  out  new  and  unexpected  re- 
sults. But  even  without  this  mitigation  it 
became  clear  that  they  who  insisted  so 
sternly  on  the  reign  of  law  were  overlooking 
one  of  the  essential  forces  of  the  world. 
In  addition  to  such  elements  as  oxygen  and 
hydrogen,  and  such  forces  as  attraction 
and  repulsion,  and  such  facts  as  life  and 
matter,  is  the  human  will.  In  the  midst  of 
1 68 


PRAYER 


the  sequence  of  cause  and  effect  appears  a 
force  invisible  and  inscrutable,  independent 
of  laboratory  tests,  defiant  of  prediction 
and  calculation.  The  everlasting  laws 
forbid  rain,  but  man  wills  that  it  shall  rain, 
and  it  does  rain,  the  water  coming  from  the 
hose  which  his  will  has  brought  into  action. 
The  everlasting  laws  pronounce  upon  a 
patient  the  sentence  of  death,  but  the  will 
brings  a  physician  and  his  will  gives  the 
patient  a  new  lease  of  life. 

Such  a  response  and  action  of  the  human 
will  is  an  answer  to  prayer.  The  only 
important  difference  between  these  prayers 
and  those  which  are  made  in  religion  is 
that  in  religion  we  pray  to  God,  while  in 
these  and  like  cases  we  pray  to  the  physi- 
cian or  to  the  gardener.  In  essence  the 
action  is  the  same,  and  bears  the  same  rela- 
tion to  the  world  of  law.  In  prayer  we  ask 
God  to  bring  His  divine  will  into  the  se- 
quence of  cause  and  effect  as,  in  lesser 
matters,  we  bring  our  human  will.  We 
know  that  God  can  answer  prayer  be- 
cause we  can. 

2.  But  will  God  answer  prayer?  Will  He 
do  it  in  consideration  of  our  indolence? 
Will  He  do  for  us  that  which  we  might  do 

169 


PRAYER 


for  ourselves?  Would  not  such  an  easy 
accomplishment  of  results  be  bad  for  us? 
We  recognize  the  wisdom  of  the  philos- 
opher who  said,  "Every  man  is  as  lazy  as 
he  dares  to  be."  We  perceive  in  our  ob- 
servation and  experience  how  considerable 
is  this  audacity.  We  know  very  well  that 
if  students  could  pass  examinations  by 
prayer,  some  of  them  would  not  study;  if 
business  men  could  make  a  fortune,  or 
even  a  decent  living,  by  prayer,  some  of 
them  would  not  work.  We  know  also  that 
study  and  work  and  other  like  exercises 
are  good  for  us.  They  strengthen  us  and 
make  us  grow.  They  are  conditions  of 
human  progress.  We  believe  that  God 
is  interested  not  so  much  in  what  we  have 
as  in  what  we  are.  His  ideal  is  a  world 
whose  note  is  set  in  the  beatitudes,  wherein 
life  is  governed  not  by  compulsion  but  by 
aspiration,  and  men  master  themselves 
first  and  then  master  the  conditions  which 
surround  them. 

So  when  the  plague  made  its  annual 
visitation  to  the  mediaeval  city,  and  the 
people  crowded  the  churches  and  besought 
God  to  remove  it,  He  would  not  do  ac- 
cording to  their  prayer.  It  was  a  prayer 
170 


PRAYER 


which  they  could  answer  for  themselves. 
At  last,  they  saw  that,  and  cleaned  the 
town.  They  learned  the  lesson,  which  an 
easy  answer  to  their  prayers  would  have 
hidden  from  their  minds,  that  one  of  the 
conditions  of  health  is  cleanliness.  It  re- 
veals God's  way  with  man.  For  the  sake 
of  human  welfare,  for  our  good,  God  will 
not  answer  the  prayers  which  we  indolently 
pray. 

Will  God  answer  prayer  in  consideration 
of  our  ignorance?  We  know  not  what  is 
best  for  us.  Sometimes  we  pray  des- 
perately to  be  delivered  from  conditions 
which  in  reality  are  blessings.  Or  we  pray 
for  that  which  we  ought  not  to  have.  St. 
Paul  prayed  again  and  again,  he  says,  for 
the  removal  of  some  form  of  sickness  which 
he  called  a  thorn  in  the  flesh.  The  prayer 
was  not  granted.  It  seemed  a  reasonable 
request,  but  St.  Paul  saw  afterwards  that 
his  weakness  was  a  help  rather  than  a 
hindrance.  Indeed,  we  pray,  as  our  Lord 
prayed,  bringing  our  desires  into  conformity 
with  the  great  plans  of  God,  saying  "not  my 
will  but  thine  be  done."  We  do  not  wish 
a  reply  to  any  prayer  which  we  ignorantly 
pray,  misunderstanding  what  is  best. 

171 


PRAYER 


These  limitations  of  the  divine  answer 
to  prayer  are  such  as  exist  in  the  common 
experience  of  domestic  life.  Children  pray 
(to  use  St.  Paul's  phrase)  "without  ceas- 
ing." They  are  all  the  time  asking  for 
things.  The  little  child  cries  "Mother"  a 
thousand  times  a  day,  praying  his  prayers. 
All  of  these  prayers  are  heard,  but  a  great 
many  of  them  are  not  answered.  The 
indolent  prayers  and  the  ignorant  prayers 
are  not  answered.  God  deals  in  like  man- 
ner with  us  His  children. 

3.  Is  it,  then,  necessary  to  pray?  Will 
not  God,  who  knows  our  necessities  before 
we  ask,  and  our  ignorance  in  asking,  give 
us  what  we  need  without  our  petition.  It 
is  plain  that  He  does  so  give  us  the  univer- 
sal blessings.  The  sun  rises  and  the  rain 
falls  on  those  who  pray  and  on  those  who 
do  not  pray,  without  distinction.  This 
belongs  to  what  St.  Francis  called  "the 
great  courtesy  of  God."  But  as  regards 
particular  blessings,  we  are  instructed  by 
the  ministry  of  Jesus.  He  never  distrib- 
uted His  blessings  at  wholesale.  He  never 
healed  the  patients  in  a  hospital,  ward  by 
ward.  He  usually  healed  one  by  one.  And 
commonly  those  whom  He  healed  were 
172 


PRAYER 


distinguished  from  those  whom  He  did  not 
heal  by  the  act  of  prayer.  He  cured  those 
who  asked  for  cure.  Thus  in  Jericho, 
where  there  were  many  blind  men,  He  gave 
sight  to  one,  in  answer  to  his  persistent 
prayer. 

Prayer  is  an  expression  of  faith  in  the 
being  of  God :  we  kneel  and  speak  to  Him. 
It  is  also  an  expression  of  faith  in  the  prov- 
idence of  God;  it  is  a  way  of  saying  that  we 
commit  our  lives  to  Him,  and  all  our  in- 
terests and  desires,  in  perfect  confidence. 
Thus  we  explain  the  curious  petition  in  the 
Litany:  "That  it  may  please  thee  to  rule 
and  govern  thy  holy  church  universal  in 
the  right  way."  It  is  not  intended  to 
imply  that  unless  we  pray  diligently, 
keeping  God  reminded  of  His  duty,  He 
will  govern  the  church  in  some  wrong  way. 
It  is  a  statement  of  faith,  in  terms  of 
prayer.  But  especially  prayer  is  an  en- 
deavor to  obtain  that  which  we  might 
otherwise  miss.  Thereby  we  open  our 
souls  and  make  ourselves  receptive  to 
divine  blessing.  We  make  it  possible  for 
God  to  bless  us. 


i73 


PRAYER 


II 

The  difficulties  which  hinder  prayer  as 
communion  are  not  so  much  intellectual 
as  spiritual. 

1.  One  of  them  is  familiarity.  We  be- 
come so  accustomed  both  to  the  act  and 
to  the  words  of  prayer  that  we  pray 
automatically  without  thinking,  without 
really  praying.  This  hindrance  may  be 
removed  by  beginning  our  prayers  with  a 
moment  of  preliminary  silence,  while  we 
consider  with  ourselves  where  we  are  and 
what  we  are  about  to  do.  We  are  in  the 
divine  presence,  and  are  about  to  address 
God.  A  further  help  against  familiarity 
is  the  making  of  a  change  in  the  order  or 
in  the  words  of  our  prayers;  getting  away 
from  the  letter,  the  formula,  of  our  peti- 
tions. 

2.  Andther  difficulty  is  secular ity.  We 
find  ourselves  lacking  in  sensitiveness  of 
spirit,  in  consciousness  of  God,  because  we 
have  dulled  our  souls  by  conformity  to 
the  world,  and  are  not  conscious  of  God 
in  our  ordinary  thoughts.  Our  minds  are 
rilled  with  other  things.  Our  honest  inter- 
est is  elsewhere.    There  are  courses  of 

174 


PRAYER 


living  which  unfit  people  for  religion.  A 
devoting  of  one's  energies  wholly  to  busi- 
ness, or  to  recreation,  affects  every  other 
part  of  our  life.  The  unused  faculty  be- 
comes after  a  time  unusable.  Especially, 
any  willing  and  satisfied  continuance  in 
sin  affects  prayer.  What  we  need,  under 
such  circumstances,  is  reformation;  we 
need  repentance  and  amendment.  We 
need  such  a  desire  for  the  betterment  of 
our  souls  as  shall  express  itself  in  earnest 
prayer. 

3.  A  third  difficulty  in  communion  with 
God  is  infirmity,  especially  infirmity  of 
body.  It  affects  both  mind  and  soul.  We 
are  not  well,  and  that  ill  condition  affects 
all  that  we  do.  The  early  monks,  who 
lived  in  defiance  of  the  laws  of  health, 
found  themselves  afflicted  with  a  spiritual 
disease  which  they  called  Indifference 
(acedie  =  the  condition  of  not  caring). 
There  were  times  when  God  seemed  to  be 
remote  or  non-existent,  and  religion  seemed 
to  have  no  meaning  or  value,  and  nothing 
was  worth  while.  This  malady  may  some- 
times be  overcome  by  taking  exercise, 
breathing  pure  air,  and  getting  into  a 
better  physical  condition.    Sometimes  it 

175 


PRAYER 


may  be  met  by  effort,  by  resolutely  sum- 
moning our  attention.  In  any  case,  God 
has  not  withdrawn  Himself  from  us;  it  is 
we  ourselves  who  have  set  our  bodies  as  a 
barrier  between  Him  and  us,  by  our  mis- 
fortune or  by  our  neglect. 

Ill 

Considering  now  the  practice  of  prayer, 
we  find  ourselves  praying  both  in  private 
and  in  public. 

i.  It  is  highly  important  that  for  our 
private  prayers  we  have  definitely  settled 
times.  We  are,  indeed,  to  pray  "with- 
out ceasing,"  i.  e.,  we  are  to  be  habitually 
prayerful  as  some  are  habitually  musical, 
or  artistic,  or  literary  in  the  inclination  of 
their  interests.  But  to  such  a  frame  of 
mind  we  are  to  add  a  regulation  of  time. 
Every  day  on  rising,  or  on  retiring,  or  on 
both  occasions,  we  are  to  address  ourselves 
to  God. 

It  is  also  desirable  that  we  have  def- 
initely settled  themes.  First,  conscious- 
ness of  the  divine  presence,  before  we  be- 
gin; then  thanksgiving  for  God's  blessings, 
of  preservation,  of  health,  of  happiness,  of 
special  gifts;  then  anticipation,  looking 
176 


PRAYER 


forward  to  the  difficulties  and  opportunities 
of  the  day,  asking  for  guidance  and 
strength;  then  intercession,  for  other  per- 
sons, for  the  advance  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  in  general  and  in  particular.  The 
evening  prayers  may  be  like  the  morning, 
changing  anticipation  to  retrospection. 

2.  The  public  prayers  should  be  prefaced 
like  the  private  prayers  with  a  space  of 
silence.  We  kneel  as  we  enter  the  church, 
and  pray  that  in  this  service  we  may  con- 
duct ourselves  to  the  praise  of  God  and  the 
good  of  our  souls:  "Let  the  words  of  my 
mouth,  and  the  meditation  of  my  heart, 
be  alway  acceptable  in  thy  sight,  O  Lord, 
my  strength  and  my  redeemer." 

The  prayers  and  praises  of  the  service 
constitute  our  offering  to  God.  They  are 
the  true  reason  for  church  attendance. 
The  sermon  is  what  we  get;  and  the  honest 
truth  is  that  often  we  can  get  something 
better  by  staying  at  home  and  reading  a 
good  book.  But  the  service  is  what  we 
give.  It  is  our  sacrifice  of  adoration.  And 
as  we  offer  it,  He  is  among  us  who  prom- 
ised His  especial  presence  wherever  any 
two  or  three  are  met  together  in  His 
name. 

177 


PRAYER 


IV 

When  the  disciples  asked  the  Master 
to  teach  them  to  pray,  He  taught  them 
the  Lord's  Prayer. 

1.  It  begins  with  invocation.  We  pray 
to  "Our  Father,"  remembering  His  near- 
ness to  us  and  His  love  for  us,  and  add 
"who  art  in  heaven,"  remembering  His 
might  and  majesty,  bringing  to  our  affec- 
tion reverence.  The  plurals  of  the  prayer 
express  our  sense  of  brotherhood:  not  for 
our  own  selves  but  for  our  neighbors  also 
do  we  pray. 

2.  Invocation  is  followed  by  petition:  for 
the  spirit  of  worship —  "Hallowed  be  thy 
name";  for  the  spirit  of  service  —  "Thy 
kingdom  come,  thy  will  be  done,"  express- 
ing our  ideal  of  the  world  and  our  part  in 
attaining  it;  for  help  for  the  present  — 
"Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,"  —  for 
the  past  —  "Forgive  us  our  trespasses"  — 
and  for  the  future  —  "Lead  us  not  into, 
temptation."  Temptation  is  a  trial  of  our 
souls;  it  is  a  test  of  our  strength.  And  we 
shrink  from  it.  It  is  true  that  St.  James 
said,  "Count  it  all  joy  when  ye  fall  into 
divers  temptations";  but  he  was  a  saint. 

178 


PRAYER 


Our  Lord  takes  our  weakness  into  account, 
and  permits  us  to  pray  this  natural  and 
instinctive  prayer.  If  temptation  befalls 
us,  "deliver  us  from  evil";  if  there  must 
be  a  battle,  grant  that  we  may  quit  our- 
selves like  men;  but  out  of  the  power  of 
temptation,  out  of  the  mastery  of  evil, 
good  Lord,  deliver  us. 

3.  The  prayer  ends  with  an  ascription, 
taken  not  from  the  Bible  but  from  the 
service  of  the  early  church. 

4.  The  Lord's  Prayer  is  somewhat  dif- 
ferently worded  in  the  two  places  in  which 
it  occurs  in  the  gospels,  and  the  Prayer 
Book  wording  is  not  quite  like  either  of 
them.  This  is  because  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
like  the  Psalms,  is  retained  in  the  Prayer 
Book  from  a  translation  of  the  Bible  older 
than  the  King  James  version.  When  that 
version  appeared,  in  1611,  every  English- 
speaking  Christian  knew  by  heart  the 
Lord's  Prayer  of  the  earlier  time  and  con- 
tinued, as  most  people  continue  to  this  day, 
to  say  it  in  those  words. 

The  Lord's  Prayer  is  explained  in  the 
Catechism.  "I  desire  my  Lord  God,  our 
heavenly  Father,  who  is  the  giver  of  all 
goodness,  to  send  his  grace  unto  me  and 

179 


PRAYER 


to  all  people;  that  we  may  worship  him, 
serve  him,  and  obey  him,  as  we  ought  to 
do.  And  I  pray  unto  God  that  he  will 
send  us  all  things  that  are  needful  both  for 
our  souls  and  bodies,  and  that  he  will  be 
merciful  unto  us,  and  forgive  us  our  sins; 
and  that  it  will  please  him  to  save  and 
defend  us  in  all  dangers  both  of  soul  and 
body;  and  that  he  will  keep  us  from  all 
sin  and  wickedness,  and  from  our  spiritual 
enemy,  and  from  everlasting  death.  And 
this  I  trust  he  will  do  of  his  mercy  and 
goodness,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
And  therefore  I  say,  Amen,  So  be  it." 


1 80 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


I.   The  "Lord's  Supper" 

1.  Remembering:  the  death  of  Christ,  the 

mercy  of  God 

2.  Receiving:  for  spiritual  strength 
II.   The  "Holy  Communion" 

1.  Fellowship  with  Christ:  the  "real 

presence" 

2.  Fellowship  with  one  another:  the 

kingdom  of  heaven 

III.  The  "Holy  Eucharist" 

1.  The  ancient  sacrifices 

2.  Their  fulfilment  in  Christ 

3.  Our  sacrifice  of  praise,  and  of  self 

IV.  Difficulties 

1.  Intellectual:  "This  is  my  body" 

(1)  Roman  solution:  transubstan- 

tiation 

(2)  Protestant  solution:  commem- 

oration 

(3)  These  solutions  modified  and 

combined  in  the  Episcopal 
Church 

2.  Moral:  the  peril  of  "unworthiness" 

Understood  by  definition 

i83 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 

Requirements 

z.  Repentance  and  amendment,  faith  and 

thanksgiving,  brotherly  love 
2.  Comfort  and  counsel 


184 


X 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 

This  sacrament  is  called  by  three  signif- 
icant names:  it  is  the  Lord's  Supper,  it  is 
the  Communion,  and  it  is  the  Eucharist. 

I 

As  the  Lord's  Supper  it  is  a  memorial 
of  the  words  and  acts  of  Christ,  on  the 
night  in  which  He  was  betrayed.  He  took 
bread  and  blessed  it  and  gave  it  to  His 
disciples,  saying,  "  This  is  my  Body  which 
is  given  for  you;  do  this  in  remembrance 
of  me."  Likewise,  He  took  the  cup,  and 
when  He  had  given  thanks  He  gave  it  to 
them,  saying,  "Drink  ye  all  of  this,  for 
this  is  my  Blood  of  the  New  Testament, 
which  is  shed  for  you  and  for  many,  for 
the  remission  of  sins;  do  this,  as  oft  as  ye 
shall  drink  it,  in  remembrance  of  me." 

i.  The  first  meaning  is  that  of  remem- 
brance. He  was  no  longer  to  be  with  them 
in  the  old  way;  they  would  meet  together 

i85 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


and  His  place  would  be  empty.  He  had 
been  their  guide  and  inspirer,  teaching 
them  continually  by  His  word  and  ex- 
ample, by  the  spirit  of  His  life,  the  truth 
which  should  transform  the  world.  They 
were  not  only  to  be  like  Him,  but  their 
mission,  henceforth,  was  to  be  the  extension 
of  that  likeness  among  men.  They  were  to 
be  witnesses  unto  Him.  To  that  end,  they 
must  keep  Him  in  their  thoughts  and  in 
their  hearts.  If  in  any  way  they  forgot 
Him,  and  substituted  any  other  teaching 
for  His  teaching,  and  any  other  ideal  for 
His  ideal,  they  would  so  far  fail  in  their 
great  purpose.  Accordingly,  He  provided 
a  definite  act  whereby  their  memory  of  Him 
might  be  assisted.  And  He  associated  this 
act  with  a  necessary,  and  universal,  and 
daily  part  of  life;  He  connected  it  with 
eating  and  drinking. 

The  breaking  of  the  bread  was  to  remind 
them  of  His  broken  body,  the  pouring  of 
the  wine  was  to  remind  them  of  His  shed 
blood,  because  in  His  death  He  summed 
up  the  significance  of  His  life.  The  cross 
is  the  symbol  of  the  love  which  He  had 
for  them  and  for  all  men,  and  of  the  self- 
sacrifice  in  which  that  love  was  manifested 
1 86 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


even  to  the  laying  down  of  His  life.  The 
remembrance  of  Him,  such  as  would  be 
renewed  by  the  bread  and  wine,  would 
help  them  to  fulfil  the  commandment 
which  shall  change  the  kingdoms  of  the 
world  into  the  kingdom  of  God:  "That  ye 
love  one  another  even  as  I  have  loved  you." 

But  the  love  and  self-sacrifice  of  Jesus 
Christ  mean  far  more  than  the  affection 
and  devotion  of  a  friend.  The  Last  Supper 
appealed  immediately  to  their  friendship; 
the  words  came  to  their  hearts  as  the  words 
of  one  whom  they  devoutly  loved,  who  for 
mysterious  reasons  beyond  their  under- 
standing was  to  die.  They  were  filled 
with  sorrow.  But  as  time  passed,  and  the 
crucifixion  was  interpreted  by  the  resurrec- 
tion, and  they  began  dimly  to  perceive 
who  He  was,  and  is,  who  had  lived  so 
familiarly  among  them,  the  meaning  of  the 
sacrament  rose  from  friendship  to  faith. 
They  saw  that  in  Him  was  not  only  human- 
ity but  divinity;  in  Him  was  God  man- 
ifested. Thus  the  sacrament  became  not 
only  a  reminder  of  His  affection,  and  a 
remembrance  of  His  self-sacrifice,  but  a 
revelation  of  God.  It  showed  how  God 
cares  for  man. 


187 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


Two  kinds  of  remembrance,  then,  meet 
in  this  sacrament:  we  remember,  for  the 
deepening  of  our  love,  the  self-sacrifice 
of  Christ;  and  for  the  increase  of  our  faith, 
the  mercy  of  God.  We  are  to  have  "a 
lively  faith  in  God's  mercy  through  Christ, 
with  a  thankful  remembrance  of  His 
death."  "To  the  end  that  we  should 
always  remember  the  exceeding  great  love 
of  our  Master,  and  only  Savior,  Jesus 
Christ,  thus  dying  for  us,  and  the  innu- 
merable benefits  which  by  his  precious 
blood-shedding  he  hath  obtained  for  us, 
he  hath  instituted  and  ordained  holy 
mysteries,  as  pledges  of  his  love  and  for 
a  continual  remembrance  of  his  death,  to 
our  great  and  endless  comfort." 

2.  These  meanings  of  the  sacrament 
would  have  been  satisfied  by  a  breaking 
of  the  bread,  and  a  pouring  of  the  wine 
into  a  cup.  When  He  said,  "Take  and  eat 
this,"  "Drink  this,"  He  went  beyond,  and 
made  the  supper  a  symbol,  as  He  made 
baptism  a  symbol,  of  a  divine  blessing. 
As  the  water  of  baptism  is  the  outward 
sign  of  a  spiritual  cleansing,  so  the  bread 
and  wine,  partaken  of,  are  the  outward 
signs  of  a  spiritual  feeding.  Thus  the 
188 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


Lord's  Supper  is  a  sacrament  not  only  of 
remembrance  but  of  strength. 

We  bring  to  the  interpretation  of  the 
sacrament  the  mystical  sentences  of  the 
sixth  chapter  of  St.  John.  "  I  am  the  living 
bread  which  came  down  from  heaven;  if 
any  man  eat  of  this  bread,  he  shall  live 
forever:  and  the  bread  that  I  will  give  is 
my  flesh,  which  I  will  give  for  the  life  of 
the  world."  "Whoso  eateth  my  flesh  and 
drinketh  my  blood  hath  eternal  life,  and 
I  will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day."  "He 
that  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood, 
dwelleth  in  me,  and  I  in  him."  The  words 
have  no  immediate  reference  to  the  Holy 
Communion,  being  spoken  long  before 
the  institution  of  the  sacrament.  The 
blessing  which  they  promise  is  associated 
in  other  places  with  other  conditions. 
Thus  to  one  who  asked  how  he  might 
attain  eternal  life,  our  Lord  replied,  "If 
thou  wilt  enter  into  life,  keep  the  Com- 
mandments." And  St.  John  said,  "If  we 
love  one  another,  God  dwelleth  in  us." 
The  grace  of  the  sacrament  may  be  had 
without  the  sacrament.  There  is  nothing 
magical  about  the  consecrated  bread  and 
wine,  as  if  grace  were  somehow  enclosed 

189 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


in  them,  given  to  us  by  the  hand  of  the 
priest,  and  made  ours  by  eating  and 
drinking. 

At  the  same  time,  the  words  remain,  and 
the  command  to  eat  and  drink  remains. 
In  many  ways  God  nourishes  our  souls; 
and,  here  particularly,  in  this  way.  Among 
the  innumerable  sacraments  with  which 
the  world  is  filled  —  every  one  of  them  an 
outward  and  visible  sign  of  an  inward  and 
spiritual  grace  —  is  this  of  the  bread  and 
wine,  ordained  by  Christ  Himself.  Thus 
there  are  many  foods,  but  here  is  the 
table  spread  in  our  house:  this  is  our  im- 
mediate concern.  There  are  many  means 
of  grace,  but  here  is  this,  offered  definitely 
to  us. 

We  come,  therefore,  to  the  Lord's 
Supper  not  only  remembering  but  re- 
ceiving. We  come  for  strength.  We  are 
perplexed  in  the  confusion  of  life,  hard 
beset  by  temptation,  needing  increase  of 
faith,  and  a  closer  approach  to  God,  and 
comfort  in  sorrow.  And  this  we  find  in 
this  sacrament.  It  is  not  a  theory,  derived 
from  an  interpretation  of  texts.  It  is  an 
experience  into  which  Christian  people 
are  entering  every  day. 
190 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


II 

i.  As  the  Holy  Communion,  the  Lord's 
Supper  is  primarily  a  fellowship  of  the  soul 
with  Christ.  The  doctrine  of  the  "real 
presence,"  maintaining  that  Christ  is 
present  on  the  altar  under  the  form  of 
bread  and  wine,  easily  descends  into  su- 
perstition and  thus  degraded  becomes  a 
Christian  equivalent  to  pagan  idolatry. 
It  is  capable,  however,  of  a  spiritual 
interpretation  which  commends  it  to  the 
mystics.  He  who  promised  His  presence 
with  us  always  is  present  with  us  now  and 
here.  We  may  say,  indeed,  with  truth  — 
especially  with  the  kind  of  truth  which  is 
better  expressed  in  prose  than  in  poetry  — 
that  Christ  is  present  as  actually  outside 
the  church  as  in,  and  that  the  notion  that 
He  is  particularly  present  on  the  altar  is 
absurd.  But  Christ  is  present  for  us  only 
so  far  as  we  ourselves  recognize  Him,  and 
it  is  the  virtue  of  the  sacrament  that  it 
awakens  that  recognition.  The  conditions 
combine  to  produce  that  emotion:  the 
still  church,  the  dim  light,  the  steady 
voice,  the  sacred  associations,  the  rise  of 
prayer  and  praise  to  a  supreme  height  in  the 

191 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


union  of  our  worship  with  that  of  angels  and 
archangels,  all  preparing  us  for  the  recital 
of  Christ's  mysterious  consecration  of  the 
bread  and  wine  to  be  His  body  and  blood. 
It  is  easier,  with  these  assistances,  to  real- 
ize Him  than  it  is  in  the  common  course 
of  busy  life.  In  that  sense  there  is  a  real 
presence  of  Him  who  is  forever  really  pres- 
ent.   He  dwells  in  us  and  we  in  Him. 

2.  There  is  also  in  the  Holy  Communion 
not  only  a  spiritual  but  a  social  fellowship. 
The  meaning  of  the  phrase  in  the  creed, 
"the  communion  of  saints,"  is  unknown. 
The  history  of  its  addition  to  the  creed  is 
obscure,  and  the  form  of  the  Latin  is  such 
that  nobody  can  tell  whether  the  reference 
{sanctorum  communionem)  is  to  holy  things 
or  to  holy  persons.  The  phrase  looks  like 
an  explanation  of  "the  holy  Catholic 
Church";  but  it  may  mean  either  that  the 
church  is  the  society  in  which  we  partake  of 
sacred  privileges,  such  as  the  sacraments, 
or  that  the  church  is  the  society  in  which 
we  are  all  joined  together  in  the  unity  of  the 
faith  and  in  love  one  for  another.  The 
two  interpretations  meet  in  the  sacrament, 
but  the  second  is  more  distinctly  referred 
to  in  the  Prayer  Book. 
192 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


This  is  the  sacrament  of  brotherly  love. 
It  is  required  of  those  who  come  to  it  that 
they  be  "in  charity  with  all  men."  "If  ye 
shall  perceive  your  offences  to  be  such  as 
are  not  only  against  God,  but  also  against 
your  neighbors,  then  ye  shall  reconcile 
yourselves  unto  them;  being  ready  to 
make  restitution  and  satisfaction  according 
to  the  uttermost  of  your  powers  for  all 
injuries  and  wrongs  done  by  you  to  any 
others;  and  being  likewise  ready  to  forgive 
others  who  have  offended  you,  as  ye  would 
have  forgiveness  of  your  offences  at  God's 
hands."  These  words  follow  the  spirit  of 
our  Lord's  direction  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  (Matthew  5:23,  24).  The  congrega- 
tion at  the  sacrament  is  thus  a  little  section 
of  that  kingdom  of  heaven  which  our 
Lord  sought  to  realize  on  earth,  the  ideal 
of  universal  fraternity  for  which  He  gave 
His  life.  We  are  to  come  putting  out  of  our 
hearts  all  hatred  and  variance,  all  jealousy 
and  prejudice,  and  whatever  else  may 
hinder  us  from  godly  union  and  concord. 


193 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


III 

In  the  last  service  in  the  Prayer  Book,  at 
the  end  of  the  last  page,  before  the  Ar- 
ticles, the  Lord's  Supper  is  called  the 
Eucharist,  or  "praise-service."  The  word 
is  denned  in  the  phrase,  "our  sacrifice  of 
praise  and  thanksgiving." 

1.  Primitive  religion  is  filled  with  sacri- 
fice. Men  come  with  the  produce  of  their 
fields,  or  of  their  flocks,  —  sometimes 
with  the  bodies  of  their  enemies  or  even 
of  their  own  children,  —  to  make  an 
offering  to  God.  A  fire  burns  on  the  altar 
and  the  sacrifice  ascends  to  heaven  in  the 
flame  and  smoke.  The  idea  is  commonly 
to  propitiate  God,  i.  e.,  to  turn  away  His 
wrath,  and  persuade  Him  to  spare  sinners. 
This  method  of  approach  to  God  is  con- 
tradicted by  the  doctrine  of  the  divine 
fatherhood.  Not  in  that  manner  do  chil- 
dren, even  in  deepest  penitence  or  fear, 
approach  their  father. 

2.  All  that  was  true  in  the  ancient 
sacrifices  finds  fulfilment  in  the  cross  of 
Christ.  He  suffered  death  for  our  redemp- 
tion. He  "made  there  (by  his  one  oblation 
of  liimself  once  offered)  a  full,  perfect,  and 

194 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


sufficient  sacrifice,  oblation  and  satisfac- 
tion for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world."  On 
the  nearer  side,  His  death  was  a  proclama- 
tion of  the  infinite  importance  of  the  spir- 
itual religion  which  He  preached,  and  of  the 
ideal  life  which  He  taught  and  lived.  He 
was  put  to  death  because  He  insisted  on 
these  things,  and  He  considered  them 
worth  dying  for.  He  died  to  redeem  us 
from  the  sin  and  error  against  which  He 
protested.  By  His  sacrifice,  as  we  come 
to  recognize  it,  we  are  reconciled  to  God. 

3.  Thenceforth  all  the  old  sacrifices, 
even  of  the  Temple,  are  fulfilled  and  cease. 
In  the  place  of  the  old  altars  is  a  Holy 
Table,  spread  with  the  symbols  of  His 
death  in  perpetual  memory  of  His  precious 
sacrifice,  and  made  beautiful  by  the  signs 
of  our  devotion.  This  is  the  meaning  of 
the  adornment  of  the  table  with  fair  linen, 
and  silver  vessels,  and  lights  and  flowers. 
This  is  the  basis  of  the  tradition  which 
summons  all  Christians  to  be  present  at 
the  sacrament  on  certain  days  —  Christ- 
mas, Easter,  Whitsunday  —  because  these 
are  the  anniversaries  of  divine  blessings 
which  give  us  reason  for  special  gratitude. 

One  side  of  the  eucharistic  meaning  of  the 

195 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


sacrament  is  set  forth  in  the  words,  "Above 
all  things  ye  must  give  most  humble  and 
hearty  thanks  to  God,  the  Father,  the  Son 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  for  the  redemption 
of  the  world  by  the  death  and  passion  of 
our  Saviour  Christ,  both  God  and  man." 

Another  side  is  in  the  words,  "And  here 
we  offer  and  present  unto  thee,  O  Lord, 
ourselves,  our  souls  and  bodies,  to  be  a 
reasonable,  holy,  and  living  sacrifice  unto 
thee." 

Thus  while  the  title  the  "Lord's  Supper," 
suggests  the  good  of  our  souls,  and  the 
title,  the  "Holy  Communion,"  suggests  in 
part  the  love  of  our  neighbor,  the  title,  the 
"Eucharist"  suggests  that  aspect  of  the 
sacrament  in  which  we  address  ourselves 
to  God,  kneeling  before  Him,  praising  Him, 
worshipping  Him,  adoring  Him,  and  offer- 
ing Him  the  sacrifice  of  our  Thanksgiving, 
and  the  service  not  only  of  our  lips  but 
of  our  lives. 

rv 

Two  difficulties  arise  in  the  way  of  this 
sacrament,  the  one  intellectual,  the  other 
moral. 

i .  The  intellectual  difficulty  is  connected 
iq6 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


with  the  words  "This  is  my  body."  We 
perceive  with  our  senses  that  this  is  bread. 
How  can  it  be  at  the  same  time  bread  and 
His  body?  To  this  question  two  kinds  of 
answers  have  been  given,  literal  and 
spiritual. 

One  of  the  literal  explanations  is  called 
Transubstantiation.  It  is  founded  on  a 
proposition  of  mediaeval  metaphysics 
which  affirmed  that  every  object  consists 
of  substance  and  accidents.  The  substance 
is  the  thing  in  its  essential  being;  the 
accidents  are  the  manifestations  of  it  to 
our  senses,  as  for  example  its  form  and 
color.  In  the  sacrament,  they  said,  the 
accidents  of  bread  and  wine  remain,  but 
the  substance  is  changed  by  the  word  of 
the  priest  into  the  Body  and  Blood  of 
Christ.  The  saying,  "This  is  my  body" 
is  taken  literally.  This  which  is  on  the 
altar  is  now  bread  and  wine  only  in  appear- 
ance; it  is  really  the  body  and  blood  which 
our  Lord  derived  from  the  Virgin  Mary 
His  Mother. 

One  of  the  spiritual  explanations  is 
called  Commemoration.  Our  Lord's  words 
are  understood  in  the  sense  of  metaphor: 
This  represents  my  body  and  blood.  The 


197 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


sacrament  is  a  memorial.  Whatever  bless- 
ing it  imparts  is  by  the  quickening  of  our 
remembrance.  Transubstantiation  is  ob- 
jective, making  grace  to  reside  in  the 
consecrated  elements;  Commemoration  is 
subjective,  making  grace  to  consist  in  the 
emotions  of  our  hearts.  This  which  is  on 
the  Holy  Table  is  body  and  blood  only  in  a 
figure  of  speech;  it  is  really  and  solely  plain 
bread  and  wine. 

Each  of  these  interpretations,  more  or 
less  modified  in  statement,  has  found 
acceptance  in  the  Episcopal  Church.  In 
the  Prayer  Book  of  1549,  when  the  ruling 
men  of  the  church  were  of  what  is  called 
the  Old  Learning,  the  priest  as  he  admin- 
istered the  bread  was  instructed  to  say, 
I  "The  body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  which 
was  given  for  thee,  preserve  thy  body  and 
soul  unto  everlasting  life.".  This  was  con- 
sistent with  the  theory  of  Transubstan- 
tiation. In  the  Prayer  Book  of  1552,  when 
the  ruling  men  were  of  the  New  Learning, 
the  words  were  changed  to  read:  "Take 
and  eat  this  in  remembrance  that  Christ 
died  for  thee,  and  feed  on  him  in  thy  heart 
by  faith  with  thanksgiving."  This  ex- 
pressed the  theory  of  Commemoration. 
198 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 

In  the  Prayer  Book  of  1559,  in  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth,  when  the  desire  was  to  hold 
within  the  church  both  of  these  kinds  of 
men,  the  two  sentences  were  put  together, 
and  so  remain  to  this  day.  The  combina- 
tion fairly  represents  the  mind  of  the 
church.  There  are  still  "extreme"  men 
on  one  side,  whose  devotions  run  along  a 
line  which  is  at  least  parallel  with  Tran- 
substantiation;  and  there  are  "extreme" 
men  on  the  other  side  whose  position  is  in 
large  measure  expressed  by  Commemora- 
tion. But  most  churchmen  effect  a  working 
combination  of  the  two. 

The  sacrament  of  the  bread  and  wine  is 
at  the  same  time  the  sacrament  of  the 
body  and  blood.  The  word  of  scripture 
is  true,  and  true  also  is  the  witness  of  our 
senses.  The  Holy  Communion  is  like  a 
letter  which  by  means  of  ink  and  paper 
brings  to  us  the  will,  the  counsel  and  the 
affection  of  our  friend.  It  actually  brings 
them.  The  words  are  not  our  friend;  the 
value  of  them  is  not  in  their  outward  form ; 
neither  do  the  words  merely  remind  us  of 
our  friend.  In  them  he  comes,  and  speaks, 
and  helps  us.  In  some  such  way,  Christ 
comes  in  the  bread  and  wine.    With  our 


199 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


lips  we  receive  these  outward  things,  and 
into  our  hearts  there  enters  thereby,  if 
we  are  receptive,  the  blessing  which  Jesus 
associated  with  the  eating  of  His  flesh  and 
the  drinking  of  His  blood. 

2.  The  moral  difficulty  is  connected  with 
St.  Paul's  words,  "He  that  eateth  and 
drinketh  unworthily  eateth  and  drinketh 
damnation  to  himself,  not  discerning  the 
Lord's  body." 

The  difficulty  is  diminished  by  defini- 
tion. "Damnation,"  as  the  Revised  Ver- 
sion shows,  means  condemnation.  Words 
change  their  values  in  the  course  of 
time.  "Prevent"  once  meant  to  go  be- 
fore in  order  to  help,  and  in  the  English 
Prayer  Book  where  we  say  "Direct  us,  O 
Lord,  in  all  our  doings,"  they  still  say 
"Prevent  us."  But  now  in  our  common 
speech,  the  word  means  to  go  before  in 
order  to  hinder.  So  with  "plausible," 
which  used  to  mean  worthy  of  applause. 
So  with  "damnation."  We  connect  the 
word  with  everlasting  punishment,  but 
that  was  not  the  meaning  when  the  King 
James'  translation  was  made,  early  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  It  meant  condemna- 
tion. They  who  come  unworthily  will  be 
200 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


condemned  of  God,  like  those  who  do  any 
other  wrong. 

And  "unworthily"  means  indifferently, 
without  thought  of  religion.  It  is  made 
plain  in  the  Communion  Service  that  in 
order  to  partake  aright  we  must  have  a 
sincere  feeling  that  we  are  unworthy  so 
much  as  to  gather  up  the  crumbs  under 
the  Lord's  Table.  The  minister  confesses 
that,  for  himself  and  for  us.  We  must  be 
conscious  of  our  sins,  and  aware  of  our 
distance  from  our  ideals.  We  may  not 
approach  in  the  disposition  of  the  Pharisee, 
saying,  "God,  I  thank  thee  that  I  am  not 
as  other  men  are."  We  acknowledge  that 
we  have  grievously  offended  in  thought, 
word  and  deed.  We  are  heartily  sorry 
for  these  our  misdoings.  The  remem- 
brance of  them  is  grievous  unto  us:  the 
burden  of  them  is  intolerable.  Such  a 
sense  of  unworthiness  as  this  is  essential. 
It  is  on  account  of  our  weakness  that  we 
come  to  this  sacrament  of  strength. 

We  learn  what  St.  Paul  meant  when  we 
see  what  they  were  doing  whose  unworth- 
iness he  reproved.  They  were  in  the  habit 
of  assembling  for  a  social  meal.  At  these 
festivities  some  were  wholly  interested  in 

201 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


eating  and  drinking:  they  were  hungry, 
St.  Paul  says,  and  even  drunken.  At  the 
end  of  this  rather  disorderly  meeting  they 
had  the  Lord's  Supper.  Therein  they 
did  not  "discern"  the  Lord's  body,  i.  e., 
they  made  no  difference  between  the 
consecrated  bread  and  common  bread 
(I  Corinthians  11:20-34).  Unworthiness, 
then,  in  the  sense  in  which  St.  Paul  used 
the  word,  is  the  offence  of  those  who  come 
to  the  sacrament  as  those  Corinthians 
came,  lightly,  carelessly,  without  thought 
of  sin,  and  without  thought  of  God.  Often, 
those  who  hold  back  and  are  afraid  to 
come  are  in  the  very  spirit  which  the 
sacrament  requires. 

V 

1.  The  requirements  are  stated  in  the  cat- 
echism: "To  examine  themselves  whether 
they  repent  them  truly  of  their  former 
sins,  stedfastly  purposing  to  lead  a  new 
life;  have  a  lively  faith  in  God's  mercy 
through  Christ,  with  a  thankful  remem- 
brance of  his  death;  and  be  in  perfect 
charity  with  all  men."  It  is  like  the  silent 
meditation  which  precedes  the  act  of 
prayer.  The  three  points  of  preparation 
202 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


are  repentance,  remembrance  and  rec- 
onciliation. Am  I  honestly  aware  of  my 
sins  and  shortcomings?  What  are  they,  in 
actual  detail?  Am  I  trying  to  overcome 
them,  trying  definitely  to  be  better,  and 
seeking  now  for  that  purpose  the  help  of 
God?  Am  I  thinking  with  faith  and  grati- 
tude and  affection  of  the  death  of  Christ, 
who  gave  His  life  that  we  might  be  re- 
deemed from  such  sins?  Do  I  hear  Him 
saying,  "This  have  I  done  for  thee,  what 
doest  thou  for  me?"  Am  I  living  neigh- 
borly and  fraternally  with  others?  Am  I 
increasing  or  diminishing  the  pleasantness 
of  life  where  I  live?  Am  I  harming  any- 
body in  thought,  word  or  deed?  Am  I  so 
far  as  lieth  in  me  living  peaceably  with  all 
men? 

The  answers  to  these  questions  cannot  be 
in  terms  of  perfection,  but  they  must  be 
in  terms  of  aspiration.  We  must  earnestly 
desire  and  definitely  resolve  to  be  better. 

2.  If  such  reflection  raises  difficulty  in 
our  minds,  and  we  are  in  doubt  whether 
we  ought  to  come  to  the  Lord's  Supper  or 
not,  we  are  told  in  the  Prayer  Book  not 
to  continue  in  our  anxiety  but  to  consult 
a  minister.    "Because  it  is  requisite  that 

203 


THE  HOLY  COMMUNION 


no  man  should  come  to  the  Holy  Com- 
munion, but  with  a  full  trust  in  God's 
mercy,  and  with  a  quiet  conscience: 
therefore  if  there  be  any  of  you,  who  by 
this  means  [i.  e.,  by  his  own  thought  and 
prayer]  cannot  quiet  his  own  conscience 
herein,  but  require th  further  comfort  or 
counsel,  let  him  come  to  me,  or  to  some 
other  Minister  of  God's  Word,  and  open 
his  grief,  that  he  may  receive  such  godly 
counsel  and  advice,  as  may  tend  to  the 
quieting  of  his  conscience,  and  the  re- 
moving of  all  scruple  and  doubtfulness." 


204 


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